The Hitchhiker
by TempestDash
Summary: Kim wakes up one day to find the whole world has forgotten about her.  With no support, Kim hitchhikes across the country to find a way to restore her world.  One night, a bright green semi-truck stops to give her a lift, and everything begins to change.
1. We Met In Southampton

The Hitchhiker

Based on characters and situations from **Disney's Kim Possible**.

Written by Adam Leigh.

**Summary**:

Kim wakes up one day to find the whole world has completely forgotten her. With no support, Kim hitchhikes across the country to find a way to restore her world. Then, one night, a bright green sixteen wheeler truck stops to give her a lift, and everything begins to change.

* * *

_Day 12_

_Okay. I might as well start from the top._

_I'm keeping this diary because to make sure I remember all of this, so I can know it's all REAL. I might have doubts some day, worse than the ones I have right now, and I'll need this record to remind me that this DID happen to me. That I didn't imagine it._

_I figure paper is the most reliable way to store my thoughts since I can't depend on having power available, and I've already seen the Kimmunicator's battery indicator go down dramatically since arriving. Dad told me once that a regular cell phone uses up more power when it can't find cell towers to talk to than when it can. I wonder if the Kimmunicator is the same way because I __**know**__ that Wade said its power cells were good for years, but here we are, twelve days after I woke up and it's completely dead._

_So, I might as well call it Zero Day, the day I woke up here, since that's how I'm numbering the entries in this diary. It started with a regular mission, at least, it seemed that way at first. Wade called me, I called Ron, we met up in Zurich, and found Drakken there, as zany as ever, collecting precious metals and gemstones out of safety deposit boxes. He said something about the largest untracked collection of platinum and diamonds being in safety deposit boxes at the Zurich Cantonal Bank. I have no idea if that's accurate, but once Drakken gets an idea in his head..._

_Anyway, Shego and I fought while Ron tried to shut down Drakken's strange vacuum cleaner machine. Business as usual, I thought. But, well, it wasn't a vacuum cleaner in the traditional sense. After Ron started pulling wires, Drakken started making a commotion about the vacuum using point-singularity power to generate micro black holes to suck the contents directly out of safety deposit boxes without even opening them I have been thinking about this for the last two weeks and I still have no idea what he was talking about._

_The machine started to make weird noises and Shego quickly abandoned our fight and ran. Drakken was close behind, and Ron followed suit. I... I have no idea what I was thinking. I ran towards the machine. I thought, maybe, since Drakken mentioned black holes and everything, that it could be bad news if it exploded. I wanted to try and find a way to shut it down. Or at least dump the thing into the Limmat River to reduce the damage._

_I had nearly pushed the vacuum to the window when it suddenly began imploding in on itself. The sound of twisted metal was loud and felt like a sharp blade to my ears. I barely had a second to be afraid before I felt the sudden jerk of motion and I tumbled into darkness._

* * *

With a tight yank of her arm, Kim tightened the rope around the man squirming beneath her, causing the latter to let out a squawk and glare angrily up at the girl. She smiled down at him with satisfaction, her one brow arched strategically to convey her incredulity at the escape attempt.

"Who ARE you?" the man growled. He thrashed about once more to test the knot but made no appreciable progress at getting free.

"Nobody," Kim said with a shrug. "I was just passing through. Thought I'd help out."

The rope was a bit of a dramatic touch, she recognized, but she didn't want her knot tying skills to atrophy. She just as easily could have used the large plastic zip ties she kept in her back pocket, or the duct tape in her sling bag, but the old braided rope was just lying there at the loading dock, and she couldn't help herself but grab it and fashion it into a lasso. She at least managed to squash the urge to throw the end of the rope over the nearby lamppost and leave the thief dangling.

She gestured her head towards the black bag lying out of reach of the criminal. "What's all that, anyway?"

"You don't know?" said the man, surprised.

"Knowing you, it's probably a component of some world destroying device," said Kim then wished she hadn't.

"Knowing me?" said the man in a confused tone. "Have we met?"

"Ah, no," Kim shook her head. "Not in this life time." She smiled halfheartedly. "You've got a reputation, though, Lipsky."

"I do?" asked Lipsky. "That's news to me. And it's Doctor Lipsky."

"This would be your opportunity to bask in the glory, _Doctor_," said Kim. "So what's in the bag?"

"DARPA's experimental automated oil mole," said Lipsky. "Nobody was supposed to know it was here, but... well, I've got my ways." The man smirked, forgetting briefly he was tied up and beneath the heel of his captor.

Kim adjusted her bag and pulled out a cell phone, looking briefly at the screen. "What's an oil mole?"

"Been living under a rock?" asked Lipsky.

Kim laughed. "Trust me, if I were, I'd probably know more than I do." She looked behind herself and then waved towards the beleaguered campus cops that were just coming into view. They were breathing heavily and clearly sweating but jogging closer.

She'd seen them chasing after Lipsky while she was walking across the campus of the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University and instinct told her to get involved. She hadn't really heard about him since arriving, but Kim assumed that in a race between a would-be Drakken and the police, she'd want to help the police.

This Lipsky was, of course, different than the one she was used to, but that was nothing new. Lipsky here had normal colored skin and no scar, but otherwise looked the same. He was short, stocky, with tiny hands, and had wild black hair with a rat tail in the back. The labcoat was white instead of blue but she recognized him as Drakken in an instant.

"The oil mole seeks out cheap micro-repositories of buried oil and collects them for refinement," said Lipsky. "Completely automated! Uses ultrasound to find the oil and a collapsible bag for transport. It's a brilliant piece of machinery!"

Kim grimaced. "Sounds cool, I guess. Why do you want it? Found some oil in your backyard?"

"For the _battery_ of course," said Lipsky.

"You stole a robot for its battery?" asked Kim. "Wouldn't the grocery store be a better place to go for a AAA than a secured laboratory?"

"It's not just ANY battery!" said Lipsky. "It's an atomic power cell! It uses waste fuel pellets from large scale nuclear reactors! Anyone who figures out how to mass produce that technology is looking to gain a fortune."

"You stole a battery so you could sell it," said Kim, slowly.

"So I could reverse engineer it and dominate the market!"

Kim shook her head. "So, you're not going to hold the world ransom?"

"Ransom?" asked Lipsky, looking up at her strangely. "How would I even do that? _Who_ would I ransom the world to? Aliens? What a silly idea."

Kim sighed. She was so used to the way things played out before arriving here. Now she was always confused. At least she captured the right person this time, unlike earlier in the year when she accidentally attacked Senior Senior Junior.

The trio of campus cops finally reached her and Lipsky and paused for a second to catch their breath. "Thank you," said the lead cop, a portly man with a graying mustache. "He would have lost us at that first fence if you hadn't shown up."

Kim smiled and nodded. "My pleasure. It's just a good thing he didn't have his hovercar with him."

"Hovercar?" asked Lipsky. He was eyeing Kim weirdly now.

"Er, yeah, I guess," nodded the cop, slowly. "Do you... know him?"

Kim shook her head. "We've just met. I've only heard of him by reputation."

"Who is he?" asked the cop, surprised.

"Drew Lipsky," said Kim. "You know, evil plans, builds strange things, a mad sci-er, criminal."

"Mad criminal?" asked the cop.

"Well, uh... I mean, aren't they all?"

"That's the truth," said one of the other cops, a taller, younger man who was standing Lipsky up.

Kim nodded and looked back to the lead cop again. "There, you see. Truth."

The cop frowned now and looked Kim up and down suspiciously. "Who are you?"

"I'm nobody," said Kim, as she typically did. "Just a good Samaritan who didn't want to see a thief get away." She shrugged. "if you've got everyone under control here, I'll just be on my way, then." She tightened the strap on her bag and slid it to rest in the small of her back.

"Yeah, sure," said the cop. He was still visibly uncomfortable and Kim didn't want to linger if he was about to jump to some strange conclusion… like she was somehow in cahoots with Drakken. After a moment he half-smiled. "Thanks again."

"No big," said Kim brightly, then turned on her foot and began jogging towards the road.

* * *

_Day 369_

_It's been over a year now since I arrived. I guess that means I'm twenty now. Happy Birthday to me! I would have celebrated but, there's hardly any point. Nobody knows or cares here. If I ever get back home I'll just have a mega birthday party to make up for all the years I missed. _

_Ugh. "All the years." I can't believe I just wrote that. I remember back when I thought I'd get home in a few days. I wish I had this journal then, I could go back and experience my naiveté again. No, it's obvious now that nobody is coming for me. Either nobody knows where I went or they don't know how to follow. Regardless, I have to find my own way home, and that means I'm definitely in for the long haul. I just hope I get home before I'm thirty._

_Still, it's not so bad here. Not quite as exciting as home. No heroes or villains in the news, no radical technologies changing people's lives in sudden ways. It's like there's a dial on excitement and someone turned it down to 1 in this world. Nobody seems to notice. I guess their lives have always been this slow, they'd never notice._

_Chasing down Lipsky last week was the most excitement I'd had in months. I hoped that it would make the news. I checked for a few days but I don't think it ever showed up. It's funny, I never really cared about the press when I was home, but now I'd really love to see at least a mention of me. It would at least mean somebody knew I was here and cared._

_I'm getting depressed writing all this. I need to stick to the task at hand._

_I made it to Columbus thanks to Lawrence Fletcher, a very nice man who picked me up around Wilkes-Barre. He reminded me of my father, a little eccentric, but an intelligent older man, who seemed very calm and collected. He was an antiques dealer but talked excitedly about dinosaurs. I got the impression he had a very loving family at home._

_I miss MY family._

_No. Not going to get depressed again._

_I roamed about the city for a day, using up most of my remaining cash looking for information and buying some shipping maps. Columbus seems to be the ground shipping center of the Midwest. I'm hoping tomorrow I'll be able to find a ride all the way to California. There's an engineer at Caltech with a very promising last name I'd like to meet._

* * *

Kim pulled out her cell phone and stared at the blank screen. Dead. There was not much use in complaining about it, she knew it would happen eventually. Public outlets were not very common along an interstate highway. She was just hoping she would have been able to get a ride by now.

It was late on a fall day; the sun had dipped below the horizon which meant it would become dark rapidly. It wasn't too cold, she judged, and it wasn't the time of year yet where she couldn't sleep in the woods by the road, she just tried to avoid it whenever possible.

Columbus was still on the horizon behind her. Despite walking since before sunrise this morning she still hadn't made all that much progress. Again, that wasn't unexpected, just depressing.

Zipping up her jacket, Kim stuck one of her hands in the pocket and held the other aloft as she spotted another group of cars coming around the bend in the road behind her. She would hold out for another hour or two, up until the point where she would be in danger of getting accidentally run over, and then duck into the woods and look for a relatively undisturbed place to sleep.

The group of cars sailed past quickly without any sign of slowing down. Damn. She would have thought that hitchhiking would be easier in the Midwest than on the East coast - which is where she'd been for the last year - but that was turning out to be a bad assumption. Never had she gone so long without even a single person stopping to see if she was just trying to get help for a stalled car.

Headlights appeared around the bend again and Kim held her hand aloft. The lights were high and large and Kim recognized them as belonging to a semi-trailer truck. She held her hand up higher, hoping to grab the driver's attention. She had hoped to get picked up by someone in shipping, the odds were better they were heading where she wanted to go.

The headlights dipped suddenly and began to slow much to Kim's delight. She bit her lip, trying not to get too excited at the prospect of not having to sleep in the woods. The driver could just as well been slowing down to be cautious about running her over.

The hazard lights of the semi truck came on and Kim's heart sped up as the truck slowed down. She stepped further off the road to let the driver pull over onto the shoulder. The truck itself was newer, fairly clean, and a bright green color. The windows appeared tinted because Kim couldn't see inside at all until the driver turned on the cabin light and rolled down the passenger window.

"Hey, where you headin'?" asked the driver.

Kim stared.

"Hey?" repeated the driver. "You all right?"

Kim opened her mouth slowly. "You're..." she started, then stalled, uncertain how to proceed. She looked at the driver, and then looked at the truck. "Green. I mean, in a green truck," Kim finished.

"Well, doy," said the driver, who looked identical to Shego. She had the same pale skin, green eyes, angular jaw, and long dark hair. "But I'm fairly certain you could have seen that before I opened the window." She smirked, then added. "It's my favorite color. Is that a problem for you?"

Kim blinked. "No! Uh, no, of course not. I like green too, actually." She shook her head as if throwing loose an uncomfortable thought. "I'm sorry. I'm heading to Los Angeles." She shrugged. "Are you... going in that direction?"

Shego looked down at her for a second, her grin still in place, then nodded. "It's your lucky day, then. That's where I'm heading too." She leaned forward and pulled on the door handle to open it. "Climb in!"

Kim sighed satisfactorily. She had a ride! It was with Shego, of course, which would be awkward, but it was only a few days. Besides, there was no telling what this world's Shego was like, maybe she wasn't an evil psychopath.

With a leap, Kim jumped up on to the footstep and climbed her way into the cab. The inside was nicely appointed, clean, spacious, with a pleasant fruity smell probably courtesy of an air freshener Kim could see hanging off of the cigarette lighter. This Shego was a tidy woman, that much was obvious.

Kim pulled the door shut behind her, and Shego slowly pulled away from the shoulder.

"I'm Kim," she introduced herself. "Kim Possible."

Shego smiled and nodded. "I'm Sharon Hedge."

"Nice to meet you, Sharon," said Kim. She hesitated for a second, a conflict brewing in her head. She had to ask, right? This world was different, she kept telling herself, people didn't seem to have very many similarities to their counterparts from Kim's world. But... _Sharon?_ That seems like such a mundane name compare to Shego.

"Got any nicknames?" Kim asked before her brain could object further.

"Nicknames?" She looked obviously surprised.

"Yeah, you know," Kim said. "Like, my father used to call me Kimmiecub, and yooooou—I mean there were _some_ people who used to call me 'pumpkin' because of my hair."

"Okay, sure, I suppose. I could see that. The 'pumpkin' part, anyway."

"So, got any?" Kim pressed.

"Is this how you start all conversations? Interrogating people about their childhood nicknames?"

"Well, I mean, if you've got a cool nickname, I wouldn't want to miss out," said Kim.

"Miss out? On a nickname?"

"Can it hurt to tell me?"

"I'm starting to think it will."

Kim stuck out her lower lip and made the puppy dog face.

"Wow, that's... wow. How old are you?"

Kim rolled her eyes and looked back at the woman who called herself Sharon.

"Ok, fine. I guess my brother used to call me 'Sis' and I had an old employer who used to call me 'Go Girl' on account of where I'm from, but nothing cool. Or nothing that I think is cool. Is that good enough?"

"Oh," said Kim. Well she had her answer. No need to press the matter further. None at all. They were strangers, after all, in this world. There was no need to push someone who was being nice to her into insanity because of a sudden obsession with nicknames. "So nothing like 'Shar', or 'Greenie', or..." she shouldn't. Not really. She knew better than to tempt fate like this. "Shego?"

"Geeze, Princess!" she snapped. "Are you this pushy with everyone you meet?"

Kim swallowed. "Sorry!" she said quickly. "Sorry, I got carried away."

The driver shook her head and muttered to herself. "You do a person a favor..." She looked angry now as she drove. After a moment she reached forward and turned the cab light off again, and only the reflected glow from the headlights and the instrument cluster illuminated the cabin.

A long, agonizing minute passed.

"Shego, huh?" Kim heard the driver quietly say to herself. Then she repeated it a couple more times. "Shego. Shego."

Another minute passed.

"I might like that."

*** End Part One

* * *

A/N: I dunno. Is this a good idea? Who knows! I'm just writing things that come to me at this point, my writers block is so bad.

Let me know what you think about this idea! Shego as a trucker? Got potential? I think so, but then again it's 12:30am on a Wednesday night.

In _theory_ this story is one of a plethora of side stories to POSSIBILITY ENGINE, but that would only matter if I ever got around to writing more of POSSIBILITY ENGINE. So, yeah.


	2. Boarded a Boat to the Seas

The Hitchhiker

Based on characters and situations from **Disney's Kim Possible**.

Written by Adam Leigh.

* * *

_Day 370_

_Technically its day 371 now, but I have a lot to say about yesterday and I want to get it down while I can still vaguely recall my thoughts. I wish my head wasn't throbbing while I write this, but I don't want to forget, hangovers be damned._

_Anyway, its starts with this: I'm sitting in Mack Truck with Shego._

_Well, this world's Shego, anyway, who calls herself Sharon Hedge. She seems... not at all what I would expect her to be like. I would have figured, even in this subdued world that Shego would still be a criminal, a grifter or maybe an enforcer for some gang. But, no, she's a trucker. I can't even believe I'm writing that. I thought falling through some crack in the world was going to be the strangest thing to happen to me ever, but here I am, hitching a ride with Shego the Trucker._

_She should have her own TV show._

_I should note that her change in vocation has not altered her personality in any way. She's still as irascible, sarcastic, and flippant as ever._

_Oddly, I find it very comforting. I feel some of the nostalgia from my old life, with less of the "she's trying to kill me" part._

_I wonder what she's actually shipping?_

*** KP – KP – KP ***

Kim opened her eyes and stared blearily around. She could feel movement, and hear the muted rumble of an engine nearby, but for a moment she couldn't figure out where she was. Her mind raced back to find a similar situation to compare this to and recalled a time she was knocked unconscious and stuffed in a shipping crate by Drakken.

At that memory, Kim's eyes snapped open and she quickly tried to leap to her feet for an attack. As she jumped, however, her head hit the ceiling of the small area and she ended up knocking herself down to land face first onto the floor between the seats of the semi truck's cabin.

"Ack!" yelped a woman's voice nearby and Kim craned her head to see Shego staring down at her from the driver's seat with a expression of terror.

Kim immediately recalled where she was and blushed heavily.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" shouted Shego.

Kim pushed herself up to kneeling position. "I'm... sorry," she said. "I had a ... bad dream and didn't realize where I was." That was at least partially true, she rationalized in her head. She rubbed her eyes and slowly climbed forward to sit in the passenger chair. She felt Shego's eyes on her like a torch and looked slowly over towards the driver.

Shego's face was twitching as she tried to maintain an angry scowl but the edges of her lips kept trying to turn up in a smirk. After moment she gave up and laughed loudly. "God, Princess, you are like the weirdest person I have ever met, and that's saying something."

Kim frowned and pouted. She didn't particularly like being called _weird _but she also couldn't think of a way to explain what she had just done without sounding like a lunatic. "I'm not that weird," she said.

"Oh, man, the fact that you're even embarrassed by that is the icing on the cake." She laughed again. "Has nobody called you a screwball before?"

"No," said Kim quickly, and then blanched. "No, I mean, yes, I've been called names before, but I mean-"

"They've never been appropriate before?" offered Shego.

"Yes. No. Wait..."

Shego laughed again.

Kim gave up. "Where are we?"

"Ah, changing the conversation? Don't worry, I won't forget," said Shego as she tapped the side of her head. "We're in Illinois still."

"You got going pretty early," said Kim. "It looks like it's not quite eight yet."

"You're too adjusted to East coast sun," said Shego. "It's already past nine."

"How did you know I was on the East coast?" started Kim.

"I may be grasping at straws here, but your bag says COLUMBIA ENGINEERING in big letters across the front."

Kim looked down at her sling bag and blinked. She was right.

"Oh," said Kim. "Well, I could have gotten it somewhere else... a brother perhaps or maybe I ordered it online."

"Sure you did," said Shego. "You haven't yet denied it, I should note, just offered other possible explanations."

"Actually I'm from Middleton," said Kim. "But, yes, I was just in Maryland."

"Hmm," Shego put a finger to her jaw for a moment. "There are no Columbia campuses in Maryland. You get around quite a bit, Princess. For a hitcher, anyway."

Kim grimaced. She had been roaming around the East Coast for the last year looking for any physicists or engineering geniuses that might be able to help her. She'd had no luck, of course, and had decided that the list of names she had out in California was large enough that it was time to make the trip. If that turned out to be a bust, well, then she'd be looking at Europe or Japan, neither places she had much hope of getting to on her charm alone.

"I'm looking for something," said Kim, simply. "I thought it was somewhere on the east coast, but now I'm looking west."

"All the way west, apparently," laughed Shego. "What? No help in flyover country?"

"Flyover country?" asked Kim. She'd never heard of that place before.

"You know, everything between Appalachians and the Rockies?" said Shego. "The part of the country our media elite fly over without ever stopping in."

"Oh," said Kim. "I guess not. I'm not really looking for water, though. I'm trying to find certain people who just happen to be on the east and west coasts."

"Oh, now, people are different than 'things' as you said before." Shego glanced over at Kim. "But it's strange that you would equate them."

"I don't equate people to things!" said Kim, a little offended.

"Then what did you mean before, when you said you were looking for 'some_thing_'?"

Kim bit her lip for a moment then looked out her window. "I don't want to talk about it."

Shego shrugged with a grin. "So be it, Princess, you can have your secrets."

Kim considered that. She wasn't really being secretive, but she had little reason to explain the whole story to someone just giving her a ride. More often than not people considered her crazy afterwards, and they were only on the first day of a three day trip to Los Angeles. Kim didn't want to end up stranded somewhere.

"What about you?" asked Kim after a minute. "Where are you from?"

"Oh, I have to give you my backstory but you don't have to tell me yours?" asked Shego.

"Err...no, I-"

"Chicago," said Shego before Kim could ramp up her defense. "Born there anyway, moved away when I was ready for college. That didn't work out for me though, so I got into deliveries, then shipping, and now, I have my own rig. Youngest I know to have one."

"So you've been doing this for a while, then?" asked Kim. "Shipping to the West coast."

"And back again, yeah," said Shego. "It's a nice drive most of the way. Getting through the mountains is always the annoying part. I'd rather just go between Ohio and Texas all year."

"Wouldn't you get bored?" asked Kim.

"More than I am now?" Shego rolled her eyes. "I'd rather not have to deal with heavily populated areas where people might take notice of me."

"In a giant green 16-wheeler?" Kim said. She was smirking.

"Well, that's one thing," said Shego. "I like to cause a commotion. But I don't like people scrutinizing my logs, and asking stupid questions."

"What do you mean?"

"There are these stupid laws on driving limits," said Shego with a scowl. "You can't drive more than 70 hours every eight days, you can't go more than 14 hours in a day, and you have to take breaks at least every 11 hours. You need an incredibly long 34 hour break before starting from zero again. It's stupid."

Kim boggled at those numbers. "Don't you want to take a break? Aren't those limits for your health?"

"No," said Shego. "I don't need a break, I don't get tired."

Kim waited for a minute to see what happened to the rest of that statement but nothing surfaced.

"You don't get tired?" asked Kim, slowly and with no possibility of confusion.

Shego sighed. "No, I don't. I need a little sleep, mind you, but I just don't get tired."

Kim suddenly felt a little lost, like she did when she first arrived in this world. "Is that... normal?"

"Does it sound normal to you?" snapped Shego.

"I don't... think so?"

"Wow, you really are a nutjob."

"I didn't just claim never to get tired," said Kim. She was staring at Shego intensely for multiple reasons. She wasn't sure if the trucker was just putting her on with a bit of road lore, and wanted to search for signs of deception.

She also was hoping in her heart that it was true. Since coming to this world, Kim had met with a lot of people and talked with even more but she had yet to encounter anything _extraordinary_. Sure, this world had its technological marvels and gifted athletes and thinkers but, the magical inventions of Drakken, the amazing nanotechnology her father worked on, and the alien super powers that Team Go had were all absent.

Not getting tired was not anywhere near throwing balls of green plasma around, but it was something.

"I had an accident as a kid," said Shego. "Got hurt on my head, and afterwards I just don't get tired. I don't even get fatigued. I just need to sleep for about four hours every forty-two."

"Forty-two hours? What caused that? I mean, did part of your brain get damaged, or...?"

"It's called Adenosine Immunity," said Shego. "My brain doesn't respond to the chemical signals that tell me I'm tired."

"That might explain the tired part, but not the no-sleeping for two days part," said Kim, suspiciously. She knew at least a little bit of brain chemistry thanks to her mother's constant admonishment of her coffee drinking.

"Look, I don't know," said Shego, shortly. "I just don't need it as much as normal people do, and nobody has ever told me there were any other effects. I don't get tired or sloppy, my body isn't breaking down, and I'm not going insane – unless picking you up counts as a new symptom."

Kim sighed. She didn't know whether this counted as something extraordinary or not, but she'd certainly never heard of people who only needed four hours of sleep every two days. "What do you do at night?" she asked. "Since you're not sleeping while everyone else is."

Shego shrugged. "The trucking industry works round the clock. There are more than a few towns and rest areas that are friendly to that. I find things to do."

Kim rubbed her eyes and looked back outside. Then she looked back again. "Did you even stop last night?"

Shego looked at her briefly then said nothing.

*** KP – KP – KP ***

_Day 370 (continued)_

_I'm still not sure what to think about her. She's revealed to me that she has some strange condition that prevents her from getting tired, and I'm not sure if that means she's 'super' like she was back at home or if this is just a genetic anomaly. I'm sure of one thing, though, she did NOT just get "hit on the head" and wake up with this condition. Mom would have a field day if she heard that explanation and I don't buy it any more than she would._

_So, she's lying to me, which is no big, I'm lying to her. I'm just being more obvious about it. Does that make it fairer? Or is lying, lying?_

_I'm starting to wonder why she picked me up, though. It seems like she's got her routine and her ways and I'm just sort of throwing her off her game. Has she ever picked up other hitchhikers? She also appears to be doing something to get around the rules of trucking that she recited to me, because she hasn't stopped since she picked me up last night. That's about fourteen hours of driving right there, which is supposedly the limit in a day let alone in a single sitting. Keeping me around lets me in on her secret, which is reckless. She doesn't know me. I'm a stranger to her. Why let me in on any secrets?_

*** KP – KP – KP ***

Kim jumped down from the cab of the truck and stretched, arching her back as she pushed her arms up as high as they would go. She felt tied up like a pretzel and desperately needed to untangle. After dropping her arms she crouched slightly then back flipped three times into an empty section of the gas station parking lot. She landed gracefully then grabbed her hands behind her back and pushed them upwards to work out the last kinks in her shoulders.

When she was done she rolled her neck and started walking back towards the truck. Shego was standing there, her mouth slightly ajar while she stared back. Kim blushed slightly at the attention.

"Sorry, if that was weird," Kim said when she was up beside Shego again. "I used to be a cheerleader."

Shego blinked twice, then shook her head and turned towards the Food Mart. "You know how to pump gas, Princess?" she called.

"Yeah," Kim nodded.

"Then fill 'er up," said Shego.

Kim looked at the truck's massive gas tank. She'd never pumped gas into a truck before, but figured the concept was the same. She had some trouble getting the gas cap off the tank, but after figuring out the trick she managed to get the diesel flowing. She turned to lean against the truck just as Shego was exiting the shop. She was carrying a rather large bag.

"Got 'her going?" asked Shego.

Kim nodded. "No big."

"Here." Shego tossed Kim a triangular plastic box, which the latter caught deftly and stared at. It was a sandwich, peanut butter and jelly.

"You didn't—" Kim started but Shego waved her off.

"Yes I did. I wasn't going to have you starve to death in my truck." She rolled her eyes and climbed up onto the door of the cab to put the bag through the open window. "The smell would have been horrible," she added.

Kim still looked surprised when Shego turned back. "Thank you," she said quietly.

Shgeo stood still again for a moment and then looked away. "You're welcome," she replied in equally quiet tones. The silence hung for a moment without either girl saying anything before Shego walked over to the gas tank to inspect it for... something.

Kim looked at the sandwich in her hands and felt relieved. She really didn't have any money left; she probably would have starved if Shego hadn't thought of her. She opened the wedge and took a modest bite of her PB and J.

"There's not much to do around here, unfortunately," said Shego without looking back at Kim. "I tried to push it too far without refilling, so we're not at an ideal spot. But there are a few attractions. And its daylight which should at least mean that anything that is around is open."

Kim swallowed and looked puzzled. "What do you mean? We're staying?"

Shego now looked over her shoulder. "I told you, there are laws preventing how much I can drive. The company I'm with, they overlook some of the things I do, but even they get audited sometime. They at least let me drive an eighteen hour shift before shutting me down, but after that I have to stop for about ten hours."

"How do they know?" asked Kim. "Your log sheet?"

"That and the GPS in my cab," said Shego. "It's not just a map, it's also tracking my location data. Stores it in an encrypted drive in the dash." She shrugged. "Not unbreakable, and I know a guy who'll do it for me from time to time when I do side jobs, but it's not like I'm putting miles in for the sake of it. If the fastest a container of magazines can get from Tucson to Portland is two days and I do it in one and half, then, well, it's pretty obvious I'm breaking the rules."

Kim blinked. "I had no idea shipping was that heavily regulated."

"I don't know if 'regulated' is the right word," Shego said slowly. "But there are rules and sometimes they're enforced. It's hard to tell when it'll happen so I try to be on guard." She shrugged. "Anyway, unless you're in a rush, we're sitting pretty for ten hours."

Kim took another bite of her sandwich and nodded. After swallowing she looked all the way down the long trailer truck and frowned. "You're just going to drive this thing around to see the sites?"

Shego snapped her head around to stare at Kim. "First off, 'this thing' is my rig, and you'll be sure to respect her." She stared at Kim evenly, who just looked surprised in response. "And secondly, no, I don't drive her around on off time. I have something better for that."

"Better?" asked Kim. "You have, like, a car packed away in there or something?"

Shego smirked. "Even better."

"Better than a car?"

*** KP – KP – KP ***

With a roar, Shego and Kim were speeding through the twisty roads through the Bray Conservation so fast the trees became a solid green blur to either side of them. They were riding Shego's modified 1972 Kawasaki Triple H2 Mach IV and blazing along the barren roads at nearly 100 miles per hour. Shego had boasted that her version could go over 170 mph, but she didn't dare try it on a curved road or with a passenger.

Kim clutched onto Shego tightly as they road, fearful of falling off. Kim had actually ridden plenty of motorcycles back home, but none of them were older than a few years. This forty year old bike seemed a little rough at the seams and Kim wondered if at any point it was going to throw them off and go driving in another direction.

To her credit, however, Shego never gave any signs of struggling against the machine. She had changed into a leather outfit for the ride, which Kim noted had a wedge-shaped splash of vibrant green running down the back in an angular direction, reminding her of Shego's traditional look. Kim was offered a black helmet, which she accepted, and another leather coat which was way too big for her. Instead she pulled out a denim jacket out of her bag and slipped it on. At the speeds they were going at, the differences between a denim jacket and a leather one were purely cosmetic.

The ride was fast and Shego seemed to like to corner as sharply as she could without losing her passenger. After about forty minutes they slowed a bit and pulled into a large parking lot next to a bar. Kim jumped off the back of the bike while Shego swung her leather covered leg over and pulled off her green helmet. She looked at Kim with a smile that practically glowed.

"What did you think?" asked Shego, holding her helmet under her arm like she was posing for a magazine photo shoot. She was an impressive sight, Kim silently admitted, standing next to the large bike, covered with leather, and undeniably happy.

"Not bad," said Kim. "You handle her well."

"She and I go way back," said Shego as she gently ran her hand over the seat of the bike. "She's part of the reason I never made it through college."

"Oh?" said Kim. "How's that?"

"Well, first you gotta understand... " she trailed off. "You know what, lets go inside and I'll explain." She pointed behind her.

Kim looked past Shego at the bar. It was a fairly large building, but built with a simple style. Wood shingles, log patio. There were neon decorations in all the windows displaying beer brands as well as one sign that said "Git Yer Fill!" with a stylized smiley face holding a mug of beer. It looked like, not to put too fine a point on it, not the classiest joint that Kim had ever been to.

Not to mention it was just shy of noon.

"They serve lunch here?" Kim asked.

"Yeah, sure, but it's hardly the reason to be here," laughed Shego as she turned to walk towards the front door.

Kim sighed and followed cautiously. They pushed through the front doors and into the bar. Kim noted it wasn't nearly as shabby as she had imagined. There were uneven wood boards on the floor but it looked like a design choice, as they ran up to a large stone bar surrounding a veritable mountain of liquor stacked on top of a train of fridges filled with beer. There were a few people already sitting at the bar when they arrived. Getting an early start on the day's drinking, Kim presumed. But Shego distanced them from the others and sat on a relatively empty section of stools.

Shego ordered beer and Kim initially ordered a glass of water before Shego interrupted her and sent for a beer as well.

"I can't afford—"

"I am not stupid," Shego said pointedly. "So I would appreciate it if you'd stop thinking I am."

"I don't think—"

"I _know_ you don't have any money," said Shego quickly. "I haven't forgotten that I picked you up on the side of the road. I brought you here, I'll pay for you. Just don't bring it up again, okay? I don't want a big deal made of this."

"But—"

"Ah!" Shego held up a hand and made a closing motion. "Not. A. Big. Deal. Understand?"

Kim hesitated and Shego cocked her head to the side, narrowing her eyes at the redhead. Kim eventually nodded and sighed.

"There we go," Shego said with a satisified smile. The bartender put down their two beers. "And here we go!" She picked up her glass, clinked it against the one in front of Kim, and took a deep draught.

Kim took a sip of her beer and then set it down quietly. She had drank alcohol before, but hadn't made much of a habit of it in college. She was still underage, she realized, and hoped that nobody was going to start looking for her ID.

"So, the story?" said Kim, hoping to change the topic.

"Story?" asked Shego when she set down her glass. "Oh! About college and my bike!"

Kim nodded. Shego settled on her barstool and began her story.

*** End Two

A/N: And just like that, I've got a plan, a conclusion, and most of this story written. It will be 7 parts plus an epilogue. I've made a couple of small tweaks to Chapter 1 to accommodate the conclusion I wrote, but it's essentially the same. Oh, and I added chapter titles. They probably don't make sense now. That'll change.

I'm not sure exactly the release schedule I'm going to use, but I would imagine there will be an update once every five or six days or so, so I have time to do editing and proofing of each chapter.

Please, let me know what you think of this series! Especially as things develop, I'd like to know what people's impressions are of Kim and Shego. I've toyed extensively with them here, and I'm hoping that people will find it both entertaining and surprising.

- UPDATE: Ugh, typos. I just fixed about a dozen of them, if you notice any more PM me so I can change 'em. And if anyone would like to pre-read for me, I'd appreciate it. Each chapter is about 3,500-4,000 words long and I need a turn around time of about 3 days.


	3. I Was Taught a Thing or Two

The Hitchhiker

Based on characters and situations from **Disney's Kim Possible**.

Written by Adam Leigh.

* * *

I was going for a degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Colorado, Liberty Campus, when I got my baby girl. And—

What is with that _face_, Princess?

And who are you to tell me what 'sounds like me' or not? You barely know me!

Look, I was already on the run from my family and I got a scholarship to University of Colorado. It was far enough away from Chicago that I didn't need to think twice. And I am NOT going into the story with my family. They're screwed up; take my word for it; end of story.

But as to my beautiful girl, the Kawasaki Triple, I rescued her from some abusive owner who was just letting her rust in a storage locker under a pile of - and I am kidding you not – empty beer cans. Who the hell stores empty beer cans in a storage locker? On _TOP_ of that gorgeous bike?

Well, she wasn't _that_ gorgeous when I got her, actually. She was this purple monstrosity with lesions of rust, screwed up timing, and pipes clogged with the remnants of god knows what. She needed a lot of work, but I needed a hobby. My advisor said that spending every weekend in my first semester drunk off my ass was not a good vocational choice. _Whatever_.

Anyway, I was dating this... er, I was dating Riley at the time. Someone from the motocross club who taught me loads of stuff about bikes and how to maintain them. I used to be a car girl before this. But I needed to repair whole systems in my girl, and that meant finding a hookup that could score parts cheap for me. Doc Raven, one of my professors – who was probably the smartest engineer I'd ever met, by the way, wasting his life in a crummy gas station garage fixing cars and bikes for cheap – put me in touch with a girl at a local scrap yard. The girl – her name was Vanessa but everyone called her Van – let me know every time a nicely trashed bike came in and let me get first dibs on the parts in exchange for a few favors in return.

That worked out well for a while, I got my parts, Riley helped me install them, and my baby girl became the emerald, shiny jewel she is today. But an awe inspiring sight like she is without a venue to show her off in is pointless, which is how I got into the drag scene in Liberty.

Yes, Liberty has a drag racing scene, and no it's not anything like Fast and the Furious. Turns out Van, however, is a huge name there, as she's been both cleaning up and selling off parts from bikes that get wrecked in the races. This is when she calls in the _big_ favor of course. She wants me to beat the pants off this hooser who thinks he's Vin Diesel. He _completely_ doesn't have the build for it, but that doesn't stop him from shaving his head and wearing sunglasses at night.

Apparently Van and Vin Diesel used to get the _grind_ on, but now hated each other ever since he flipped on her when they were both arrested by the Feds for organizing a massive Cannonball Run to Detroit. She did a little bit of time and he got away with probation. So, now they hate each other and she - this is Van now - wants me to humiliate him in a race and, if possible, wreck his bike.

Now, I'm not stupid, as I told you in the parking lot, so I'm not keen to get myself killed just to help Van get revenge, even if I did owe her a few favors – not that I hadn't been paying her 'favors' periodically since she started selling me parts. She insisted that it would be safe for me because she'd rigged a section of the race to cause a wipeout right into the Forster's academic building and all I had to do was guide him into it. If it worked out, he'd wipe out, and if I couldn't get him to go where I led him, then she'd be satisfied with me simply beating him to the finish line.

I still didn't like it, as you can imagine, but I did the race. Vin Diesel actually looked pretty pathetic in his macho leathers on top of a Yamaha TRX crotch rocket. He had a bigger engine than my girl, but I figured I could out handle him, not to mention his bike was stock. As if you could buy performance off the shelf. _Please_.

The race started off well, I was easily outpacing him much to his obvious frustration. When it came to the curve in the road where Van had rigged her trap I was ready to run the jerk right into his destiny but... well, I hate to say I felt terribly guilty about the whole thing. He probably wasn't going to get killed, but that didn't mean he wasn't going to get hurt. And for what? Van's anger at getting caught doing something she _knew_ was illegal?

I swerved at the last minute to drive Vin Diesel out of the way of the trap and, well, as stupid as it sounds, I ended up getting caught in it myself. My rear wheel slipped out from under me and I found myself flying through the hedges of the east campus loop and straight into the Forster building. Right through the windows in the lobby and into the receptionist's desk I went.

Yeah, it hurt, but nothing permanent happened. To my body anyway. There was no way I was going to be able to walk away from there without someone noticing and, sure enough, the cops show up and I was arrested.

Yeah. That was none too pretty. The cops busted me for the racing and the damages. The school expelled me for potentially putting students in danger – even though none were hurt – and then held me accountable for the repair costs! And to top it all off, Riley even broke up with me after finding out about the favors I was doing with Van.

So, yeah. I ended up with just me, my baby girl, a huge bill, and no degree. There was no way I was going home, that's for damn sure, so I just started looking for work to pay off my debt. I found a company willing to hire me on as a driver, and I've been doing it ever since. That was six years ago I guess.

Hmm?

Nah, I don't blame my baby girl at all. It wasn't her fault I steered her into that bad turn. She was more than a little beat up after that race, of course, but I set aside some cash from my job to fix her up and now she's good as when I first built her. I even paid off my debt a while ago, too, so it all worked out in the long run. I get to drive all the time, spend my down time cutting loose on my baby girl, and I don't ever have to worry about going home. What is there not to like?

*** KP – KP – KP ***

_Day 370 –Continued_

_I had to keep myself from responding to Shego's rhetorical question, because I didn't want to offend or jeopardize my ride in any way. But I think she was trying to force herself to believe what she was saying. I don't doubt the story about the motorcycle – which, by the way, her insistence on calling it a 'baby girl' started to get a little creepy near the end – but as far as her satisfaction with how her life turned out, I think she has regrets._

_The best sign of that, of course, is me. Why did she pick me up? I don't know how many times I can ask myself this question before I actually work up the nerve to vocalize it. Her story made her out to be some free soul or something, riding the high of her life, but if that was true why bother helping some stranger on the side of the road at night?_

_Personally, I think she's lonely. I mean, I would be. She drives all year round, over a dozen hours a day, and only stays still long enough to prevent scrutiny for breaking trucking regulations. She doesn't want a connection with her family, and she doesn't seem to have any friends, or at least none she talks about or keeps pictures of. She's fashioned her life into a mobile hermit's existence, living out of an extended cab somewhere in America, but never seeking out people unless she has to go shopping or fill up the tank._

_That was no way to live, and maybe she recognized that. She might have picked me up to have someone to talk to, or she might have picked me up to have a connection to humanity in some way._

_I'm probably getting a little melodramatic. She might have just been bored. But I will say this: she is way more fascinating than the Shego from my world. I wish there was a way to keep traveling with her, but I __**have**__ to get off in LA if I am ever going to continue my search for a way to get home..._

_Right?_

_Ugh. I need some aspirin..._

*** KP – KP – KP ***

Kim looked over her glass at Shego who was staring back at her. There were several other glasses on the table and Kim couldn't honestly remember which were hers or how many. Or when they moved from the bar to a booth for that matter. She believed it was after Shego told her about the time she was shipping twenty-ton bags of pickle relish to San Antonio when one of them broke somewhere in Oklahoma. It was also before Kim started telling Shego about her old hero days in high school. She'd kept enough wits about her to avoid the stories that involved Shego and Drakken – her Shego and Drakken – but otherwise she told them as they happened.

Shego seemed beside herself with amusement, as if Kim's stories were the height of drunken bar stories and not actually the complete and utter truth told by a person who'd come from another world. If she was sober, Kim was sure her seriousness would have convinced Shego she was being honest, but that probably would have opened up a can of worms that would have been hard to contain. As it was, Kim was relieved she was too drunk to be clearly understood.

"So, then he, uh, this is Junior now, he gets hit with the love ray and they go running off!" said Kim, in an animated tone. "I have no idea what happened to them until the ... uh... thingy wore off, but I tell you I can imagine it."

"You imagine your high school rival getting it on with a villain's son?" asked Shego with a smirk.

Kim narrowed her eyes at Shego. "Don't you go readin' into that now, it's healthy to experi-" She paused. "No, I mean, that's not what I meant. I mean, I can think of the thing in - in, in concept. You know? Not in detail. And stuff."

"It's okay, you don't have to cover up in front of me," laughed Shego.

"No, no, no, it's not that way!" said Kim loudly. Then she drank the remainder of beer in her mug. "_ANY_way, as I was saying, I got the raygun back and we got all of the love charms broken. End of story."

Shego continued to laugh. "You make up the most entertaining stories I've ever heard from a drunk."

"It's not a story," Kim muttered.

"Oh, trust me, your delivery as if it really happened is the best part."

Kim banged her empty glass on the table and looked towards a nearby waitress. It was late now and the place was much more crowded. "Hey! Is there more?"

"Yes, please bring her more," said Shego, giggling.

A waitress wordlessly came over, took Kim's mug, and vanished into the kitchen. Kim looked lazily back at Shego. "I gotta ask you something."

Shego waited for the 'something' and when it didn't come she nodded. "Okay?"

"How come you don't look drunk?" said Kim.

"I'm just that awesome," Shego said.

"I call BS on that," said Kim, rolling her eyes. "I'm pretty awesome and I feel... differenting... differenter." She gripped the table suddenly after rolling her eyes as if she'd become dizzy.

"Yeah, well, I'm larger than you, I can metabolize more," said Shego.

Kim narrowed her eyes at the trucker. "Have you been pouring your drinks into mine?"

"Wouldn't you have noticed that?"

"Maybe."

"Well, did you notice that?"

Kim continued staring.

"I don't react the same way to alcohol that you do," said Shego suddenly. "Takes a bit more to knock me over."

"Because of yer-"

Shego shook her head. "Just because. There are plenty of people who don't get drunk easily. I'm one of those people."

"So what's the point?" Kim asked as the waitress returned with two fresh mugs. She poked at her glass, leaving a trail in the condensation on the edge.

Shego grabbed her mug and took a big drink. "I didn't say I _didn't_ get drunk, just that it took more to get me there." She wiped her mouth with the side of her hand. "Besides, its better this way, we still need to get back to my rig."

Kim grumbled something incoherent then drank again.

"So, I'm a big fan of these stories," said Shego lightly. "And feel free to tell me more of your 'heroics' but, really now, why are you out here on your own?"

"No differenter than you," said Kim.

"You also got kicked out of college for trashing your bike into a school building?"

Kim grunted and said nothing.

"I'm thinking you're running from something," said Shego. "Something that happened."

"I'm_ not_ running away," said Kim.

"You've got a good education, I can tell that," said Shego. "Probably part of college or at least you were surrounded with knowledge growing up. You have well placed manners when not drunk, and you keep yourself clean and manicured to the best of your ability. That does not speak to an unhappy home life."

"There are more 'ta people than just the surface," said Kim.

"Sure enough," nodded Shego. "But I haven't heard you complain about anything. No family gripes, no angry exes, no friends with grudges. You're too young to have been waylaid by the economy. No, I don't get it. Why are you out here running from everything you know?"

Kim took another sip of her beer.

"Something happen to you?" asked Shego.

Kim looked away and found herself studying the darkened windows looking out into the parking lot.

"You do something you regret?"

Kim slowly shook her head. "You wouldn't understand."

"Try me," said Shego.

"I've had people laugh at me before," said Kim, blearily.

"I've already laughed at you," said Shego. "Was it that bad?"

"Some say I'm insane," Kim added.

"You are," said Shego. "Doesn't mean I don't want to hear about it."

Kim looked up at Shego with a frown. Shego, in return, raised her eyebrows and looked expectantly back. Quickly Kim dropped her eyes back down towards her glass, and began running her finger over the rim.

"It's like I remember a world that nobody else does," said Kim quietly and slowly. Each word inched out of her mouth, as if very deliberately chosen, and without any of the slurring she'd exhibited only moments before. "Like I woke up from a dream that lasted decades, or everyone else got amnesia except for me. I'm the only one who remembers what it was like, and nobody else remembers me."

Shego tilted her head slightly. "Nobody remembers you?" she asked.

Kim shook her head slowly. "The world I remember is different from this one. The people I thought I knew in that world, don't know me here. It's unsettling. I don't normally want to be around them."

"You think you're an alien?" asked Shego.

"I think that everything is different than it should be," said Kim. "I don't know why or how it came to be that way." She laughed slightly. "I suppose, it could be all in my head. That I imagined my life up until last year and conveniently forgot what my real life was like. But then, wouldn't there be some sign? Some evidence that I used to be someone else? Am I blocking out the evidence? Keeping myself from seeing it? Or has the world really changed around me?" She sighed. "The former means I really am insane. I prefer to hold out hope for the latter."

Kim swallowed, feeling a little uneasy. She looked up experimentally to see what Shego was doing. The look that she was receiving was strangely sympathetic. Kim felt trapped in the gaze, which was completely unexpected.

"There's someone I remember," Kim said stiffly. "A someone I found working at Caltech, who I'm hoping can help me. That's why I'm going to LA."

Shego's expression turned thoughtful. "These people you used to know, do you run into them frequently?"

Kim bit her lip, then said, "I do. But I know they don't know me, so I act like I don't know them. It's easier that way. Less trouble."

Shego looked down at the table for a second, then turned her head to look towards the bar. She gazed off at the small crowd there for almost a minute before speaking. "It sounds so..." she trailed off, as if thinking better of finishing her sentence.

"Crazy, right?" said Kim. She was trying to sound casual but the tightness in her chest made it sound desperate.

"No, not crazy," Shego said, still looking towards the bar. "I think... I think we're _all_ searching for ourselves in a world that doesn't meet our expectations."

Kim nodded, lowering her eyes.

"I was going to say," Shego started, then adjusted her posture to look straight on at Kim. She began again. "I was going to say it sounds like a very lonely life."

Kim looked up suddenly at Shego, startled. She opened her mouth to speak but said nothing. After a moment she closed her mouth again.

Then she pushed away her half-drunk mug of beer.

*** End Three

* * *

A/N: Playing with perspective here again. I like jumping around in people's heads but I frequently fail to find suitable justification for it. Here, at least, we're getting a glimpse at Shego's head as she's telling her story. It's not the whole story, of course, because this is what Shego's telling to Kim, but it's a taste. We'll be returning to Shego's POV in Chapter 6.

So, what do you think so far? Is Kim really lonely? Is Shego's story legit? Does anything make sense? If so, I must be losing my touch. :)

At this point, all of The Hitchhiker has been written. I'm taking care to edit each chapter before releasing it, however, which is why there is such a delay. There are other things I'm trying to coordinate as well, which I'll talk about later. I may speed up at some point before the end depending on how the editing goes. But there will be 8 chapters, I can say it with certainty now.

See you next week!


	4. Then I Brought Her to Her Knees

The Hitchhiker

Based on characters and situations from **Disney's Kim Possible**.

Written by Adam Leigh.

* * *

_Day 371_

_I don't remember what happened after that. I don't think anything big happened, Shego certainly hasn't told me if anything did. All I remember is waking up this morning and already being on the road, driving through Missouri. I didn't say much because of my headache and because... of what she said._

_I still can't believe I told her everything. I don't know what it is that alcohol does to me but I'd like to avoid it in the future, especially if I'm trying to keep secrets. I never gave her the gritty details, about Drakken's machine, the black holes, the fact that I woke up on top of a building in Philadelphia way, way far away from the Zurich bank where I fell into the anomaly. But the general idea, the problem I'm in, I told her in a way she'd understand._

_Her response though... it makes me question what I've written in here over the last couple of days._

_Am I lonely? I hadn't considered it before. I went on at length about how I thought Shego had to be the lonely one in her rig driving alone across the country day in and day out, but... was I just projecting? Am I seeing my own loneliness in her?_

_Or are we both lonely?_

_I still don't have a good answer as to why she picked me up, and why she's been so amazingly friendly to some strange girl who talks about being from another world. I'm beyond gratified that she is being nice, though, so maybe I shouldn't question it._

_For as much as I think Shego might have been right about the loneliness though, ever since I climbed into this rig I've felt connected to another person in way I haven't felt in a long time._

*** KP – KP – KP ***

Kim jumped down out of the cab again and waited for Shego to mosey on around the front. They were stuck in a long line of inspections at the border to Oklahoma. Shego had said it was normal around this time of day to get stopped, weighed, and have her papers checked, but it still bothered her because it was time she wasn't driving.

"Doesn't this count towards your time not driving?" asked Kim once Shego neared.

"Yeah, but it's not typically more than a few minutes."

Kim looked down the row of trucks. "Might be more this time."

"Eh, it goes quick," Shego shrugged. She leaned against the splash guard behind the front wheel of her rig and closed her eyes. Her clipboard of papers was hanging out of her folded arms, gripped by two of her fingers. Kim stared at the clipboard with curiosity.

"I've been meaning to ask you," said Kim. "What are you shipping?"

"Computer parts, I think," said Shego. She cocked her head to look at the clipboard. "I don't necessarily get to know what I'm shipping half the time, just the name of the company who loaded up the crates unless they ask for branding on the side of the trailer." She nodded after a second. "Yeah, looks like computers."

"Oh," said Kim, deflating.

"Hmm? Something wrong, Princess?"

"I was hoping for something more exciting," said Kim.

"Like what? Nuclear waste?" said Shego, laughing. "Things are not nearly as dangerous here as in your dream world."

Kim got quiet and said nothing more for several minutes. The inspection station cleared up after a while and the row of trucks moved up a few spots. Kim walked along side the rig as Shego rolled it forward, piquing the curiosity of the latter.

"What's wrong now?" Shego asked as she climbed back down.

Kim shrugged. "I'm just thinking."

"About what?"

Kim sighed dramatically. "About my 'Dream World' as you put it."

"Ah, man, did that annoy you?" said Shego, sounding a little annoyed herself.

"I'm not annoyed," said Kim. "Well, maybe a little. It's not a dream world to me."

"That's not how you described it last night," said Shego.

"I compared it _to_ a dream," said Kim. "I'm ... I'm not sure what's what, but I know what I remember and it's not a dream. To me, it's real. The question is, whether it's real beyond my memories." Kim kicked a patch of dirt on the sidewalk. "I don't want to talk about it again."

"Suit yourself," said Shego."Though it seems to me, that if you want it be more than just in your head, you're going to have to let it out at some point."

Kim contemplated that sentiment. "Why do you want to know? I mean, are you just humoring me or-"

"Look, I have no vested interest in your sanity," Shego said dismissively. "So, I'm not going to rat you out to Arkham or anything. I mean, you seem stable enough to me. But _you_ apparently have a problem, and so far it's been interesting to hear about. Thus if you need someone to talk to, _why not_ me?"

Kim rocked on her heels for a moment. "You don't find it weird?"

"Hey, I don't feature in the stories, so I don't see what there is to be unsettled about." Shego shrugged. "Unless you're referring to the fact that you could be delusional or schizophrenic, which doesn't seem likely, but even if you are, I could easily take you down if you got suddenly violent."

Kim blinked in shock. "Oh really?" she said. "You could easily take me down?"

Shego chuckled. "Uh, yes. Have you looked in the mirror? You're a rail with frock of red hair."

"I _do_ know martial arts," said Kim. "Many different styles, in fact."

"Yeah, you and every nerd I ran into at university," said Shego. "Listen Princess, even a blackbelt at your local kiddie karate club doesn't compare to real world experience. Of which, I have plenty."

Kim looked at Shego strangely for a second before going back to looking smug. "I have experience too, you know. And I didn't learn from a kiddie karate club. I've trained with some truly great martial artists."

"Recently or in your memories?" asked Shego.

Kim looked angry for a moment and then took a step backwards into a defensive stance. "There is a way to find out."

Shego laughed, then her smile slowly faded as she noticed Kim was staying on guard.

"You're serious?"

"Were you serious about being able to easily take me?" asked Kim with an arched brow. She taunted Shego with her hand.

Shego narrowed her eyes at the redhead and then tossed her clipboard onto the footstep of her rig. "Fine," she said, and began cracking her knuckles. "I have a few minutes to humor you." She stretched her arms out and then held them before her in fists. "I'll try not to knock you too silly. Don't need blood in the cab."

Kim didn't waste a second and launched herself at top speed towards Shego, startling the latter enough to get the early upper hand. Kim swung a low jab that only barely connected thanks to a late dodge by Shego. In response, Shego rolled along the outstretched arm and tried to punch Kim's side.

Kim twisted her hips to slip out of the path of Shego's fist, and then went to sweep at Shego's knees. The latter jumped to avoid the kick but didn't judge the height correctly and toppled onto the ground.

"Ugh!" Shego groaned as she landed on her back. She looked up at Kim who was grinning down at her.

"That hardly took a minute," said Kim.

Shego grit her teeth and then flipped back up onto her feet, landing smoothly and transitioning into a karate stance. Kim recognized it as one of Shego's – her world's Shego – favorite disciplines. Kim moved into a judo position.

"All right, so you're not as much of a kiddie as I thought," said Shego.

"I don't like to talk up my abilities," said Kim. She lunged forward for a grab only to find Shego ready for the attempt and redirected her momentum to the side.

Taking advantage of the opening she created, Shego lowered her shoulder to try and use Kim's energy to send her over her back. While she managed to grab Kim's arm and pull it up above her shoulder, the latter twisted suddenly and planted a foot against Shego's hip. With a yank, Kim flipped over Shego to land on her feet a few steps away.

Both combatants sized each other up again; slowly walking in a circle around an invisible ring.

"How many years of training did you say you had?" asked Shego.

"Probably around ten," said Kim. "Off and on, as it goes. How about you?"

"About the same," said Shego. "Though nothing after I started trucking. I'm a little out of practice."

Shego sped forward an launched a series of straight attacks at Kim's abdomen and head, each of which were deftly deflected or dodged, and then countered with a series of skillful grabs that couldn't keep a grip on Shego long enough for a throw. Their arms and hands slapped against one another in a fast, staccato rhythm, neither giving much ground in the furious fight.

In a strangely synchronized move, both girls leapt backwards and stood in defensive posture again.

"Doesn't..." Kim took a breath. "Feel like you're out of practice."

"I get my opportunities to use it every now and then," said Shego. She was, noticeably, not nearly as winded as Kim, but was rubbing her forearms gently. "You're damn good, though."

"Thank you," breathed Kim. "It's nice to cut lose again against someone who can take it."

"That's funny," said Shego sarcastically. "I would have thought more martial artists would pick up hitchhikers."

"Ha, ha," said Kim, drolly. She made the first move again and ran forward at Shego. A step before she reached her, however, Kim launched herself up and over to land behind Shego and go for a double armed grapple.

Shego deflected the one arm but was caught on the left and ended up being abruptly jerked around by Kim. She threw up her free arm to grab Kim's extended hand that appeared to be heading for her neck. Shego then dropped to her knees with a twist, using Kim's own grapple against her. The two fell to the ground with Shego on top, using her body to pin Kim's legs while her hands held Kim's arms as best as she could.

The two girls stared face to face as they struggled. Kim was trying to push back Shego enough to roll away while the latter was hoping to force Kim's arms to the ground to complete the pin. The test of strength was brief and Shego eventually pinned Kim fully down.

Kim let out a breath and finally stopped struggling. She looked exhilarated and annoyed at the same time. Shego was staring down at her proudly.

"A lucky grab," said Kim.

"Uh, huh, tell yourself that, Princess," said Shego with a smirk.

"I'll get you back eventually," said Kim. "But tell me this, did that fall under your definition of 'easy?'"

"Absolutely," Shego said slowly and with relish. She licked her lips afterwards.

Kim raised her head to just slightly narrow the distance between their faces. "Liar," she said simply, then smiled and rested her head back again.

Shego looked very pleased with herself and rolled off Kim to get onto her knees. Kim sat up and stretched again before moving to stand.

"Oh, I'm going to be sore," said Kim as she rolled her shoulders.

Shego got to her feet and pulled up her sleeves to look at her arms. "I'm probably going to end up black and blue." She sighed. "Never had that problem in college."

A sudden and loud horn sounded, startling the two girls. They turned to look back at the row of trucks and noticed that the semi-trailers ahead of Shego's rig had moved on and the line behind them had gotten longer.

"Oops," said Shego, and started running back to her rig. She had a wide smile on her face as she climbed back in.

*** KP – KP – KP ***

_Day 371 – continued_

_She's so similar to what I remember and yet so different. I'm constantly baffled. What am I supposed to think about her? How am I supposed to act? Every time I think I've gone too far and been too familiar with her, she just turns around and does something just as friendly back._

_I'm being distracted by my memories of Shego from my world. I keep looking for some scheme or hidden intent as if she's still working on a plan of Drakken's. I need to remember she's just a trucker in this world. An amazingly talented trucker, mind you, who rides motorcycles like a wild woman and who can put away alcohol like it's nobody's business, but a trucker none the less._

_Hopefully she'll never figure out how much I know about her from my world. She's easily been the greatest person I've dealt with since coming here and I don't want to creep her out by revealing I knew her from my 'dream world' as she calls it. She's already implied that part of the reason she's okay with what I've told her is that she's not in it. I can't risk her finding out now._

_That shouldn't be hard to do, honestly. I just need to stay away from the alcohol. After my headache this morning that should NOT be a problem._

_Honestly, I don't even care anymore why she picked me up. I'm just glad she did._

*** KP – KP – KP ***

Kim yawned and relaxed a little deeper into her seat as she stared out at the dark highway at night. "I think I can actually see those little white dashes in my head now when I close my eyes."

Shego laughed. "They do become a little insistent after a while. They don't call it highway hypnosis for nothing."

"Ugh, that's the last thing I want to think about," said Kim. "A mindless highway hypnotizing me for nefarious purposes."

"How does something mindless have nefarious purposes?" asked Shego.

"You gotta ask the highway that," said Kim. She laughed as she reached for her bag, pulling out the slim black, weathered notebook and jotting something down.

"What's the deal with you and that book?" asked Shego, glancing over at her passenger.

"It's my diary," said Kim, absently.

"A diary? Really?" asked Shego, incredulous. "Does it go back until you were twelve?"

Kim shook her head as she wrote. "No, just back to when I woke up."

"Woke up?" asked Shego.

"Yeah. When I woke up and realized that nobody knew who I was."

Shego stopped smiling and slowly nodded. "Oh." She studied the road. "I could see why you'd want to keep track of that."

"I considered the idea that I was delusional a long time ago," said Kim as she closed the book again. "I figured this was the best way to make sure I stayed grounded. If I wrote down everything that was happening to me, and I was remembering everything back to the day I woke up correctly, well, odds were the stuff I remembered before then is correct too."

"Because you wouldn't have suddenly gotten better," said Shego.

"Right. Certainly not without any treatment or medication anyway." Kim shrugged. "It doesn't help me figure out how it happened, but it at least adds to the proof that it did, in fact happen."

"Apart from knowing things about people you've never met before," said Shego.

"Well, everything is not one-to-one here," said Kim. "The biggest example being that I haven't been able to find Middleton on a map. So the whole greater city area that I lived in doesn't seem to exist here, or at least has a different name. So, as it turns out, much of what I know about people from my world doesn't seem to apply."

"Well, at least there's the martial arts thing," said Shego.

"Yes, which I definitely was trained in," said Kim. "But that's nothing extraordinary. You yourself are just as good."

"Better, remember?"

"We'll rematch, I'll get you next time," said Kim.

"Keep dreaming, Princess."

Kim smiled and then yawned again.

"You know, if you want to sleep, you're welcome to," said Shego. She pointed behind her. "You can use the bed again if you want, it's much better than a reclined seat or the floor."

"I don't want to kick you out of your bed," said Kim as she reclined her chair just a little bit. "You've already been so nice to me."

"I'm probably not going to use it tonight," said Shego with a wave of her hand.

"Aren't you coming up to the end of your active cycle?" asked Kim. "You didn't sleep last night, and you drove the whole day before."

"It'll be all right," said Shego. "It's not a strict deadline."

"But you might need to," said Kim. "I don't want to deprive you of comfort on your one rest every two days. I'll be fine here."

"Princess—"

"Look, you won the match this afternoon," interrupted Kim. "You deserve a prize, and that should be it. I've decided."

"_You've_ decided?" Shego scoffed. "Shouldn't the winner choose the prize?"

"Not in this case." Kim reclined the chair a bit further back and rested her hands on her lap. "Maybe next time."

"You mean on the time you expect to win," added Shego.

"Yup."

Shego smiled again. She reached out to adjust the thermostat a little, making it a little less cold, though still comfortable. Holding her hand over the vent, she nodded when the air became noticeably warmer.

"Is that comfortable? I don't want you to freeze," said Shego.

There was silence for a minute and Shego looked over. "Princess?"

Kim was asleep already. She was still poised perfectly on the seat, as if just resting momentarily. Her hands were folded neatly on her lap, her posture just slightly reclined back, and her face peaceful and calm.

Shego frowned briefly but then went back to smiling. She glanced back over her shoulder and then reached with one hand to pull up a blanket. Keeping one eye on the road, she tossed the blanket over Kim's form, then tried her best to adjust it so it covered her.

With a satisfied sigh, Shego then settled back into her drive. The road stretched on to what seemed like infinity in the arid planes of New Mexico. She hadn't even seen another driver in over an hour, definitely not since the sun had set.

She fiddled with the radio looking for something to fill the dull thrum of the road but could only find country music stations and she was definitely not in the mood to listen to pathetic white men whine about their love lives, whether it was with women or mechanical equipment.

Her eyes kept being drawn towards Kim's sleeping form the more she drove in the silence. She wondered if Kim was really comfortable sitting like that and if the temperature was right. Shego fiddled more with the thermostat to try and get it perfect. Then she turned off one of the dim dome lights to make it darker in the cab so she could sleep.

After a few minutes of watching the road, Shego looked over again and wondered if Kim knew that the chair reclined further than that. There was no way she could adjust it though without being disruptive, Shego concluded, and reluctantly decided not to mess with it.

A few more minutes passed.

"Ah, crap," Shego muttered as she rubbed the back of her head. She had begun to fell the tingling feeling at the back of her skull that usually meant she was starting to get tired. It was a feeling as if part of her brain had fallen asleep similar to how a person's arm or leg falls asleep when the blood flow is reduced. It wasn't exactly the same as a normal person getting tired, but it was insistent, and wouldn't stop tingling until she got some shut-eye. Shego had gotten used to ignoring it for a short while, but she wasn't going to make it through the night.

Keeping an eye open she found an area of the highway with an extended shoulder and slowly coasted onto it, bringing the truck to a stop. She pulled on the brake and let the truck gear down to its lowest idle.

Unbuckling her seat belt, Shego stood and grabbed the shades to put up on the windows, blocking out what little light was out there now and the dawn that would come later. Finally, she made sure all the doors were locked. It was not common for random people to try and gain entry to an idling rig, but it didn't hurt to be cautious.

Shego moved to the back of the extended cab and pulled down the covers on her bed. It was a very nice and comfortable bed for a truck. Nothing compared to a stand alone bed one might find in a house, of course, but still about as big as a double, with a pillow top. She could fold it up against the back of the cab if she needed but she rarely did, preferring to simply keep the bed made and available whenever she needed it.

Shego sat down on the bed and pulled off her socks and shoes and changed into some flannel pants and a t-shirt to wear. Resting her head back on the pillow she sighed with her arms folded and stared at the ceiling... for about thirty seconds before turning her head and seeing Kim again.

"She can't possibly be comfortable there," Shego said, in a frustrated tone. She got up again and pulled out a spare pillow and blanket to throw on the floor beside the bed. She decided to put Kim on the mattress and sleep on the floor.

Shego moved over to the front of the cab again and reach down to scoop up Kim gently from her seat. The redhead stirred slightly and wrapped her arms around Shego's neck but appeared to stay asleep. She must have been exhausted, Shego concluded.

Gently and quietly, Shego brought her over to the bed and kneeled to lay her down. She rested Kim's legs and head on the mattress and then moved to stand up again.

She stopped when she found herself held in place.

Shego looked down at the sleeping figure. She appeared to still be unconscious, but her arms were wrapped tightly over Shego's neck. Gently pulling at Kim's arms, Shego tried to untangle herself to get free but the younger girl simply pulled tighter.

Shego eyed Kim suspiciously.

"Are you just messing with me?" Shego said, quietly. Kim was motionless in response.

Shego sighed quietly and tried again to slip Kim's arms over her head and again found herself being pulled tighter against Kim's chest. It seemed almost comical to Shego. This girl was like a cartoon most of the time.

Resigning herself to her fate, Shego again scooped up Kim and this time sat down on the bed herself and resting Kim on her lap. The sleeping form didn't seem to take any offense to that and Shego was able to free her arms and relax back into her pillows. It wasn't the most comfortable position, but she could sleep this way. Kim seemed to agree because she turned and curled up more on Shego's lap and made pleasant sounds as she slept.

Shego just had to smile. It was silly, and with other people she might have found it obnoxious, but this girl somehow existed beyond all that. Strange stories about other worlds and surprisingly experienced fighting skills just made the girl that much more exciting to her.

There was one question, though, that leaned on Shego's mind. It was a silly question, given the circumstances, and she would never actually ask it. There was no way it mattered one way or another how she answered.

And, yet, Shego wanted to know. As if there could be an answer that was preferable. As if there was something she wanted to hear from the girl.

Shego banished the thought from her mind, lest she go crazy with what-ifs. Instead she looked down at the girl's sleeping face, dimly lit by the glow of the instrument cluster, and gently ran her fingertips across Kim's cheek and jaw. She carefully brushed a few locks of red hair out of the way and then finally rested her hand on the girl's shoulder.

Closing her eyes, Shego leaned back and finally fell asleep herself.

*** End Four

* * *

A/N: And there's my pre-requisite KiGo tension added to this tale. I'm sure most of you were expecting it, given the setup and my history, but don't go drawing any conclusions yet. We're only halfway done! I may be an admitted fan of KiGo, but I'm also a fairly vocal advocate of 'nothing being easy' in a story.

So what comes next? Does Kim's display support her story or is it just as plausible for a normal person to have those skills?

My big question this week though is: If YOU were Shego, would you believe what Kim was saying?


	5. Breakfast Was Delightful

The Hitchhiker

Based on characters and situations from **Disney's Kim Possible**.

Written by Adam Leigh.

* * *

_Day 372_

_Things... did not go as I'd expected today._

*** KP – KP – KP ***

Kim slowly stirred awake and found herself feeling pleasantly rested, moreso, perhaps, than she had in weeks. She was idly wondering why when she moved her arms and realized she was partially lying on something. Something warm and soft.

Kim picked her head up and looked to find Shego sleeping soundly beside her on the fold down bed in the latter's rig. Kim nearly squawked and only barely managed to control herself as she slipped out from under Shego's limp arm and off the bed.

Kim grabbed her head. She didn't remember going to sleep beside Shego last night. Had she forgotten something? Had she woken up and moved? Had she not gone to sleep when she thought she did and had done something she no longer remembered?

Part of Kim wanted to flee for some reason she couldn't precisely narrow down, but she squashed that instinct and tried to take stock of the facts. She didn't remember how she fell asleep. Okay, that was unsettling, _slightly_, but not unusual. She was awake now, though, and Shego was asleep. She _had_ been sleeping on top of Shego, and the latter had not apparently thrown her across the cab in response. So, maybe it wasn't an annoyance to her. Kim could not possibly imagine how it wouldn't have been an annoyance to Shego, but the facts seemed to imply it wasn't and she was just going to deal with _that_ fact right now.

Shego also had fallen asleep while being laid upon by Kim, which meant she probably had been comfortable enough to relax, which was another sign that nothing was precisely _wrong_, per se, just confusing. Kim decided to relax and waited for her body to give consensus to that decision and slow her rapidly beating heart.

Kim clenched and unclenched her hands. She wasn't sure why this was putting her on edge, but she needed to distract herself. She moved over to the passenger chair, pulled out her sling bag, and opened it. Digging around the contents she found her diary and pulled it out along with a pen.

Kim flipped to the most recent page in the book then uncapped her pen. "Day 372," she said to herself.

"'Morning."

Kim nearly leapt onto the ceiling at the sudden sound. She snapped her head around to see Shego, rubbing her eyes, and smiling lazily.

"Ah, oh, good morning," said Kim. She dropped the diary on top of her bag. "Sleep... well?"

Shego stretched her arms in the air and softly groaned. "Yeah, actually," she said after letting out a held breath. "Not too terrible considering I had a lump of dead weight on top me."

"Yeah," said Kim, looking to the side. "I'm sorry about that. I honestly don't remember how that happened."

"You're a pretty clinging girl," said Shego with a smirk. She stood and bent over to touch her toes, letting her dark hair cascade over her head and pool at her feet. "Even when fast asleep," she said from behind the curtain.

"What do you mean?" asked Kim, slowly.

Shego popped her head back up and stood tall. She pointed a slender finger at Kim's chest. "All I tried to do is carry you to the bed but you put me in a headlock and wouldn't let go." She poked Kim between her breasts.

Kim reddened. "I did? I didn't mean—"

Shego laughed. "I know, I know." She turned and went digging through a series of drawers, pulling out a pair of slim black jeans, a green cotton top, and a collared jacket that was dark brown. "It wasn't so bad," she said. "I thought it was going to be more uncomfortable than it was." She stared absently at the shirt in her hands for a moment.

"Still..." started Kim.

"Still!" Shego said, quickly, looking at Kim with narrowed eyes. "You owe me regardless. So start thinking of ways of making it up to me." She lifted her hand and did a little spinning motion with her finger. "If you don't mind."

"If... I...?" Kim started. Shego held up her clothes and shook them once. "Oh!" Kim turned on her heel and faced the windshield of the cab. She heard the rustle of clothes behind her.

"We've got a long day ahead of us since I got my rest in," said Shego as she changed. "We're not too far from Albuquerque. We can grab a big breakfast there and get on our way. Hopefully we'll make it to LA by early tomorrow morning."

Kim nodded. That seemed like pretty good time given they were in Columbus only two days ago. The no sleeping thing apparently made a big difference.

"From there you can let me know where you need to be dropped off and you can continue your quest for the truth," Shego said, taking on a dramatic tone for the last few words. "Okay, I'm done."

Kim turned around to see Shego stuffing her pajamas into a hamper hidden behind a cabinet door. The redhead smiled, because she felt that was what she was supposed to be doing. Inside, however, she felt strangely uncomfortable with the idea of getting to Los Angeles tomorrow. She tried to rationalize it. For over a year now she'd been looking for answers and the odds of finding them at Caltech were no greater than any other. Less so, in fact, because she hadn't been referred there, she was only going based on the scientist's name.

But that didn't feel right either. It wasn't depression at how long her journey had been. It almost felt like disappointment. But she couldn't pin down what she could have been disappointed about before they'd even arrived.

"You okay, there?" Shego said. "You had that zoned out look you sometimes get."

Kim shook the thoughts from her mind and genuinely smiled this time. "Sorry, just thinking bad things. There's no reason for it." Shego looked somewhat satisfied and somewhat piqued by Kim's response, but the redhead wasn't interested in explaining further. "So, Albuquerque! What's great to eat in Albuquerque?"

*** KP – KP – KP ***

The chrome trim on the 66 Diner shined a yellowish-orange in the morning sun as Kim and Shego walked inside and were seated at a booth. The diner had followed the retro craze in short order eateries and decked out its dining room as if it had been plucked from 1953 by a time traveler and set down post-millennia in the middle of New Mexico. Kim had seen many diners with similar styling and she figured Shego had eaten at hundreds more.

"So what's special about this place?" asked Kim guesturing around. "I'm sure it's not the décor."

Shego laughed. She had been in an exceptional good mood this morning in Kim's opinion, and she wasn't sure as to why. It could easily have been getting a full nights rest, she speculated. Kim certainly was more on her game in the morning than at night, and she could believe the effect would be multiplied if she spent 35 hours at a time on her feet.

"Well, the very best hamburgers in the Midwest are served here," said Shego. "Which isn't really a breakfast food, so I'd recommend the eggs and hash, though you really can't leave without a slice of pie."

"Pie?" said Kim.

"Yeah, apple cobbler is the best in my opinion but the blueberry gets some good mileage around here." Shego held up a finger. "Now, you probably don't think pie is very breakfast-y, but believe me, you'll regret it if you don't have a slice."

Kim smiled at Shego's enthusiasm. It was enough to overcome her earlier uncomfortable feelings and fill her with excitement for good food.

"But the reason I originally came here is for the staff," said Shego with a grin.

"The staff?" asked Kim.

A waitress wearing a retro outfit befitting the décor walked up at that point and put on a huge smile. "Sharon!" she said, excitedly.

Shego jumped up and gave the woman a hug and a kiss on the cheek. "Hiya, Riley! How's things?"

"Same old, same old," said Riley with a sing-song voice. "You still tearing up the highway on your Triple H?"

"When I get the time," said Shego. She turned and motioned across the table. "Riley, I'd like you to meet Kim. Kim, this is Riley."

"Hi," waved Kim, and the waitress waved back. "I guessing Shego doesn't pass through here too much." She paused when she got a strange look from Riley. "Sharon. I meant Sharon."

"Shego?" asked Riley and looked bemused as Shego.

"It's this name the Princess came up with for me," said Shego. "It's cool. I like it. Sounds tough."

"It sounds descriptive," said Riley in a teasing voice. "Just as soon as someone gets to know you, oh! There she goes."

"Ah," Shego waved her off. "I'm not that bad. I just like to keep moving."

"All your life," said Riley. She looked at Kim. "So, pet names, huh? You must be someone special."

"Ah, not really?" Kim said. "I'm just getting a ride to Los Angeles. She happened to be going my way."

Riley nodded. "Yeah, I know what that's like." She turned to Shego with a look that seemed distant, almost regretful. "So, what can I get for you?"

"Country omelet," said Shego. "Side of hash, and some potatoes. Coffee to drink."

"Ah, only eating once today, I see," Riley said, falling back into her cheerful tones. "How about you, 'Princess'?"

Kim blushed slightly. "Steak and eggs, please, with orange juice."

"Okay, steak and eggs, omelete with hash and potatoes," recited Riley. "Your drinks will be right out." She turned and headed towards the counter. As she moved past Shego she patted her on the shoulder in a friendly manner.

Kim waited until Riley had vanished into the kitchen before turning to Shego who was simply looking out the window at the sunrise.

"Riley," said Kim. "That name sounds familiar."

"We went to college together," said Shego. "At Liberty. A few years ago she got married and moved down here with her husband who works as an instructor at the army base." She turned back at Kim. "I try to stop by when my route takes me this way, but I'm not always doing a direct path to California, so I only get the chance a couple times a year if that."

"It must be nice to know a few people along your path," said Kim.

"Oh, I know lots of people out here," said Shego. "But few of them serve such excellent apple cobbler." She shrugged with a smile. "She tells me she knows the recipe, but she won't let me in on it. She says it would ruin it for me if I knew." She looked idly towards the door where Riley entered the kitchen. "Someday I'll make her spill the secret."

"She sounds like a close friend," said Kim.

Shego's smile faltered for a moment. "She used to be, but things didn't work out. This is about it now. Breakfast every six months or so." She shook her head. "I'm not much for e-mail or the phones, and I don't have a mailing address. It's the best that can be."

"I'm sorry," said Kim.

"Why's that?" asked Shego.

"I'm just, sorry for you. That you had to give up a friendship to do your job."

"Ah, we were broken long before I took up shipping." Shego nodded towards Kim. "I told you about it before. After I was expelled from University she ditched me. Didn't like what I was doing with Van."

"Oh," nodded Kim. She thought about that for a while, trying to fit it into the story Shego had told her earlier. It didn't make sense for a moment, and then it clicked all at once. "Oh!" she said louder. "She's _that_ Riley."

"Yeah," said Shego. "I don't know another one."

"I had thought..." Kim started then felt embarrassed again.

"What?"

Kim got quiet. "I thought she was a guy," she said so softly she could barely hear herself.

"She look like a guy?" asked Shego with a smirk.

"No," said Kim. "I just thought she was."

Shego folded her arms across her chest and stared at Kim. She didn't look upset at all, despite what her posture implied.

"Sorry," said Kim quietly again.

"Oh, I can't keep it up," said Shego with a burst of giggles. "I know you thought Riley was a guy, I sort of told the story to make you think that."

"You did?" asked Kim.

"Of course! I don't tend to make a big deal out of it, but others do, and I didn't know you that well. So I... obscured what you didn't need to see." She shrugged. "At the time."

"A day ago," reminded Kim.

"Two. And you can learn a lot in a day."

Kim nodded. "Apparently so."

Shego eyed her. "Does it bother you?"

"That you hid it from me?"

"Well, that, and that... well, you know."

Kim shook her head quickly. "No. No, not at all. Of course not."

"Hmm, three denials," Shego said, studying Kim's face.

Kim reddened yet again. "It's not a big deal!" She wilted under Shego's stare. "You can stop now."

Shego smile widened but she kept up her gaze.

"Now you're being creepy," pointed out Kim.

"She was always like that," said Riley, suddenly appearing with a tray of drinks. She put down a coffee in front of Shego and a tall glass of OJ in front of Kim. She paused when she saw Kim's red face, and then looked back at Shego.

"Don't tease your little girl here," she said.

Shego looked up at her. "Oh, fine."

Riley walked off again.

"Who's a _little_ _girl_?" asked Kim, suddenly. "I'm twenty!"

*** KP – KP – KP ***

"You know, I've let you in on a lot," said Shego idly as they drove into the afternoon.

Kim looked over from the book she was reading (a surprisingly trashy novel Shego had lying at the bottom of the glovebox), and tilted her head. "Okay."

"I still don't know all that much about you though," continued Shego. "I mean, I know about your problem, and your super hero antics from the dream world, but, you must have had a childhood. What do you remember from that?"

"You want to know about my life growing up?" asked Kim. She set the book down gently. "What do you want to know?"

"I don't know," Shego said, waving her hand. "Something interesting. You're full of interesting stories."

"I'm not sure if that's true," Kim said. "My childhood was pretty normal. At least, normal for where I come from. Where I remember." She played with a lock of her hair as she thought back. "Spent my whole life in Middleton, which is a tri-city area with Upperton and Lowerton."

"Upperton, Middleton, and Lowerton?" said Shego. "And you _don't_ think you dreamed that all up?"

"Hey, there are plenty of oddly named cities in the world," said Kim. "And Middleton is not odd, I've found several in the US. Just not the one I came from, and not near an Upperton and a Lowerton."

"Again, see: incredulity."

"Are you going to pick apart my life or listen to my stories?"

"I can't do both?"

Kim grumbled something that Shego couldn't hear.

"So what do your parents do?" asked Shego.

"Mom's a neurosurgeon," said Kim. "Works at the general hospital in the city. Dad's a rocket scientist for the propulsion labs at the Science Center."

Shego laughed again.

"Yes, being the daughter of a neurosurgeon and a rocket scientist is not typical," said Kim before Shego could stop laughing.

"I swear, you leapt out of a comic book," said Shego.

"They're very nice people," Kim pressed on. "And committed to their work. Both have earned their accolades in life, and have always been there when I needed them."

Shego nodded, wiping a tear out of her eye. "Only when you _needed_ them?"

Kim chewed on her lip a little. "Not _only_, but... mostly. It's part of the reason I got heavily involved in school activities and eventually babysitting. The house was always empty when I got back from school. My brothers were at daycare at the start, and mom and dad were at work. We wouldn't really settle all in one room until about 8 o'clock at night."

Kim studied her hands on her lap. "I know they loved me, and that they were supporting our lives with their work as well as bettering the world. But it's hard to understand that as a kid. All you know is that the people you want around... no longer have any time for you."

Kim breathed slowly and deliberately. She hadn't thought about these things in a very long time. She was surprised she could still recall the pain in her chest of coming to a dark home, waiting patiently until eight o'clock would roll around and then, occasionally, see it pass onto eight thirty without anyone to join her.

"But there's no need to go home after school anymore," said Kim, trying to brighten her spirits. "And I found lots of things to get involved in. Like sports, and clubs, academic teams, the newspaper, the year book, literature club, the student council, the design committee, dance preparations—"

"Woah, you did all of that?" interrupted Shego.

"Everything that didn't completely overlap," said Kim. "Sports were the worst but all I had to do was to score a few goals at the soccer matches or a few 3-pointers during basketball season and most of the coaches were okay with my occasional absences at practice."

"How much were you doing at once?"

Kim thought about it. "I never really thought of it as a number, but if I had to say, at the start of middle school I was in about six clubs and on a sports team at all times." She ticked a few things off silently on her fingers. "Yeah, that sounds about right. I dropped out of a few clubs that weren't all that fun or didn't meet consistently enough. Dropped a lot more once I had my website open."

"Your website?" asked Shego.

"Yeah, it's how I ended up in the heroic business." Kim crossed her legs. "I had a friend help me set up a website to get babysitting jobs. Mom and Dad were doing a lot of late work and I was hoping to find things to fill that time." She laughed. "I think I only actually did one babysitting job."

"Why?"

"It was a fluke, really," said Kim. "Somebody typed the wrong address into their computer and suddenly I got a call from a man who'd accidentally locked himself in his vault behind his multi-million dollar security system."

"The guy had a computer handy but couldn't call the cops?" asked Shego. "Suspicious."

"There were other details at play," Kim shook her head. "Regardless, I figured if someone needed my help, I had to at least try. So I went."

"I assume you rescued him," said Shego.

"I did," nodded Kim. "And he was very... vocal about my help. Word spread faster than I expected. Suddenly I was getting requests for help on my website at all times of the day. I ended up needing help just to sort through them all."

"You recruited a secretary?" asked Shego.

"Not a secretary," said Kim, she sounded a little irritated. "But someone who wanted to help. He took over my website and vetted the requests before forwarding them on to me."

"Sounds like a secretary to me," said Shego.

"Whatever. The point is, Wade helped me out, not only by going through the requests but arranging contact with people I'd saved in the past to get rides to places I couldn't bike to. Like Asia."

"You got requests from Asia," Shego said flatly. "For a teenaged girl to help them."

"Frequently," said Kim.

"All because you didn't want to sit alone in an empty house." Shego shook her head. "I would have loved it if my home growing up was empty."

"That's how it started, but that's not why I did it," said Kim. "By the time I was in high school it was my _parents_ who wanted to see more of _me_."

"So why did you do it?"

"To help people," said Kim, simply.

"Why?"

"I need a reason beyond that?" asked Kim. "I did it because I could. What's the point of having so many skills if I never do anything meaningful with them? Mom and Dad found the places where they could help people, and I needed to find mine. So I did."

"I guess you miss it then," said Shego. "I mean, it's been over a year, right?"

"I've helped out here where I could," said Kim. "But I've really had other things to focus on."

"So you don't miss it."

"I..." Kim struggled to find the words. "Haven't needed to be distracted in a while. Besides, its more important to find out where that world I remember went. Because if it's out there, somewhere, then, well, it needs me back, doesn't it?"

Shego looked over at Kim, she had an odd lift in her voice, like she was asking Shego for validation. "You don't think it could get by without you? That without you the world falls apart?"

"No, that's not what I meant," said Kim. "I just mean, all those people who need help, who's going to help them if I can't?"

"Maybe they'll help themselves," offered Shego.

"If they could do it themselves they wouldn't have—"

"Asked you?" Shego finished for her. "You'd think that, but why would these people even consider doing it themselves if they knew they could call you and you'd take care of it, gratis?"

"Gratis?" asked Kim.

"For free," explained Shego. "Maybe all that help was keeping people from learning to face their own problems. Maybe they'd become reliant on you."

"Some of the things I did were not easy," said Kim. "There were some pretty powerful criminals that could have... enslaved the world if I hadn't been there to stop it."

"Granted," said Shego. "Since that seems to be how your world works. But what about the rest? The other people who didn't have world conqueror problems? Did they really need you?"

Kim frowned. "I don't like to think about it as a _need_. Helping someone is not about them needing you."

"Fair enough," said Shego. "And if you passed these people on the street and saw them in distress, I could understand the desire to pitch in. But you were being summoned. That's not the same as offering help. You summon a plumber to fix your toilet but they're not there out of the goodness of their heart. They're there to provide a paid service on a schedule they define."

"I'm not a plumber!" said Kim, defiantly.

"I know _that_," said Shego. "Plumbers get paid. You put yourself at risk for no reward other than thanks."

"Maybe that's all I want!" Kim was getting louder.

"Then you must be pretty happy, because that's all you're getting!"

"I AM." Kim threw the book she was reading on the floor and abruptly turned in her seat to face out the window, away from Shego. She crossed her arms and stared out, unmoving. She didn't want to hear this. Who was Shego to question her life like this? She didn't even believe that Kim's world really existed, how could she possibly understand what it was like?

Kim was a _hero_. She knew that, deep within herself, and heroes didn't ask for a credit card after they saved the person in distress. They did it because it was right. Who was Shego to question that? Of course she was happy to help! Of _course_ she never asked for more than thanks. What kind of jaded person would do otherwise?

Naturally, Kim wasn't _always_ happy, but life was like that. Nobody was happy all the time, they were just happy some of the time but remembered those moments to bolster their emotions going forward. It's not like Kim spent all her time brooding or angry. She just sometimes wished she had more of a social life, that was all. And maybe wished that Ron could have gotten into the same school as her. Maybe wished that Drakken and Shego had stayed legit after the alien invasion, so she wouldn't have to worry about them all the time. Maybe wished there weren't always new criminals popping up to interrupt her studies and dates and sleep and...

But she was happy! Thanks were all you were supposed to ask for. Thanks were all a hero needed to survive.

Well, thanks and food.

And a place to live.

And maybe someone nice to talk to.

Someone _not_ like Shego!

...

She was happy, damn it!

*** End Five

* * *

A/N: Yeah, Riley is girl. Given the ending of the previous chapter, I'm sure you could have figured that out, but I did have Shego neglect to mention the gender of her significant other in college. It's always been a pet peeve of mine that that a lot of KiGo stories have either Kim or Shego come right out and announce they're gay or blurt out the moment they begin to suspect they might like girls. I prefer to deal with such revelations more gradually, as I've done here. Anyway...

What do you think? Could Kim just walk away from the memories of being a hero? After so many years of being a savior, can the girl who can do anything, go back to being nobody?

Next week we have the anxiously awaited return to Shego's POV... at least for one scene. Oh, and a dinner date. And more tall tales from Shego. I bet you can't wait. :)


	6. Dinner, Surprisingly Fun

The Hitchhiker

Based on characters and situations from **Disney's Kim Possible**.

Written by Adam Leigh.

* * *

_Sharon 'Shego' Hedge's Trucker's Personal Log and Private Thoughts, Volume 1, Article 1, First Entry_

_The Princess scribbles in her notebook nearly constantly and I figured to myself, why not give a try? I used to think it was such a silly idea. Like having a silent and very painfully long conversation with an imaginary person or a pen pal that never wrote you back. I hadn't considered it being useful as a memory tool until I met Kim._

_She's the Princess, by the way. Kim Possible, probable mental patient, hitchhiker, storyteller, and furious diary writer. I picked her up three days ago outside of Columbus and she has been the most worryingly interesting person I've met in many years. Van has nothing on this girl. Well, at least in the personality part. I can't speak about the other parts I haven't seen._

_I say 'worryingly' because I wonder what kind of state I've let myself get in to be so interested in a girl I can't decide is insane or not. Is this my life now? So desperate for excitement that I look to the unstable?_

_Honestly, you could probably describe my whole life that way, so maybe this is nothing new._

_But Princess is a handful, I'll say that much. She believes – I think – that she comes from another world, one where she's a super hero in the Batman-sense, rather than the Superman one. Although I suppose seeing how she fights, maybe she's closer to Superman than I give her credit for._

_Regardless, she thinks she's somehow fallen through the cracks of reality out of her comic book life to land here in the real world. Normally this would be where I would bid adieu to this particular nutjob, but apart from her unquestioning belief she's from another world, she's otherwise collected, intelligent, social, very athletic, and very, very cute._

_Now, before any conclusions are drawn, that's not the only reason I'm helping her. Yes, she's cute. She also hasn't shown any sign she's interested. She's mentioned a boyfriend before, so I can probably say pretty confidently that she's not into what I have on tap. A shame. I'll deal. _

_What IS a good reason to keep her around, though, are the conversations. Whether it's attributable to her delusions or another reason, she has a unique perspective on things and it's fascinating to hear her express it, either directly or indirectly when she talks about her 'heroics.' I could listen to her talk all day, I think, and she has yet to run out of stories about daring-do, though I do think she is censoring herself for some reason. I catch her sometimes about to start a story and then stop and restart, as if she didn't like what she was going to say and changed her mind._

_Oh! One of the oddities of this charming girl is the nicknames. She gave me one almost immediately after meeting me. I'm still not sure what that was all about, but I love it. 'Shego' she said I should be called. I suppose it's intended to be derivative of Chicago, where I told her I was from. "Chi" goes to "She" or somesort. It ends up sounding like a feminist organization, or maybe a rude expletive. All that matters is that I love the sound of it and I'm going to use it. Riley seemed to think it was descriptive, short for 'there she goes', which is a little rude coming from the "dump and run."_

_Yeah, I took Princess to meet Riley. It was part of an ill conceived plan to see if the girl played for both teams. It didn't work. No, I should say the plan worked fine, but the answer appeared to be an awkward 'no.' Not that I directly asked or she definitively answered, but she clearly was unnerved at finding out Riley was a girl. Ah well._

_Anyway, afterwards I kind of screwed up. I was trying to find out more about her and maybe help Princess with her little mental problem, but I think she was insulted instead and proceeded not to speak to me all afternoon. So, no more pop psychology for me, I'm no good at it. If she wants help with her problems, she'll just have to ask._

_I wanted to make it up to her, so I took a turn off of I-40 onto State Highway 93 and headed north. Princess didn't notice, or at least didn't appear to, but by the time night fell and she started to see the lights on the horizon, she knew something was up._

*** KP – KP – KP ***

Kim leaned forward in her seat and looked oddly at the lights ahead of them. "What's that?" she asked, pointing. These were the first two words she'd spoken to Shego since about two o'clock that afternoon. "We're not at Los Angeles already, are we?"

"No, not yet," said Shego. She grimaced slightly. It suddenly occurred to her that Kim might interpret her detour as akin to a kidnapping. She wished she had thought of that possibility, oh, a few hours earlier.

"Then what's that?" asked Kim. She seemed curious, not upset, which was a good initial sign.

"It's Vegas," Shego said plainly.

"Vegas?" Kim was surprised. "Was that on the way?"

"No, I took a detour," said Shego. She glanced over at Kim again, but the redhead was still more perplexed than frustrated. "I thought you might want to see the Strip, or catch a show."

Kim seemed to be thinking about it. Each second felt slightly longer than the previous to Shego.

"I'm well ahead of my schedule," said Shego to fill the silence. "I need to stop somewhere or I might get in trouble reporting my distance. Since this wasn't far off our path, I figured why not stop here and take a look?"

"I've been before, actually," said Kim with a half smile. "But if we gotta stop, it's fine with me."

Shego sighed in relief and then nodded. "There is a trucker stop just at the edge of city and we can ride my bike onto the Strip."

Kim shrugged and leaned back into her seat while she watched the neon lights approach. "So what do you want to do there?" she asked. "Not gamble, I hope."

"Something against gambling?" asked Shego.

"Not really, it's just not that interesting to me," she said. "Especially now since I've got, like, no money."

"Right, right," said Shego. "Well, no, I don't tend to gamble either. But the Cirque is fun, as is the standup comedy, and, of course, the food."

"You're very food-centric, I've noticed," said Kim.

"When you spend your life eating leftovers and pre-packaged snacks, a well prepared meal is worth a million bucks," said Shego. She teetered her head back and forth for a second. "And in Vegas, it's not uncommon to pay that much."

"Okay," said Kim. She watched the lights of cars fly past. "If you don't mind the money, then I wouldn't mind eating again."

Shego smiled. "Then I have just the place we should go."

"Maybe a club afterwards?"

Kim turned and looked over at Shego. She had a plain and honest look on her face that almost looked like pleading to the driver. Shego was taken aback.

"Sure, we can go clubbing," said Shego, slowly. "I've... heard of a few good places. We could check them out."

"Great! Thanks," said Kim with a wide smile.

Shego nodded silently because she didn't trust her mouth to speak. What was that just about?

*** KP – KP – KP ***

Despite being on a powerful motorcycle, Kim and Shego found most of their time scurrying through the streets of Vegas slogged with traffic. Kim had known that Vegas was often packed with cars, but had expected that a motorcycle would be able to skirt around much of the congestion with ease. As it turned out, however, it was even harder.

Eventually they pulled down an alleyway going east off the strip and pulled into an unmarked parking garage. Shego pulled a black card from the inside of her leather jacket and showed it to a tuxedoed man standing by the garage door. The man nodded without saying a word then handed over a white plastic tab with a gold number embossed on it. Shego then sped off into the garage.

Kim had never seen so many expensive cars in her life. Models that she'd never even heard of were parked two deep in this darkened garage. Rolls Royce, Maybach, Maserati, Bentley... the names were dizzying. And here was Shego in her forty year old Kawasaki Triple. Meticulously maintained, granted, but hardly in the class of these ultra-lux.

Kim said nothing, despite the display. There were questions when people did things like this, uncomfortable questions that Kim honestly didn't want to hear the answers to. She had never really wanted to live in ignorance of anything before now, and the very notion bothered her. She viewed herself as the hero, how could she be willing to compromise on that so easily?

Shego pulled the bike onto a padded car lift with a solid floor and climbed off. Kim noticed that the lift had a placard on it with a number that matched the one Shego received at the door.

"You know, I didn't really mean that I wanted a million dollar meal," said Kim. "I thought you were speaking, you know, figuratively."

Shego laughed as she lashed her helmet to the side of the bike. "Don't worry, this is for the club, not the restaurant."

Kim considered. "Yeah, that doesn't make me feel better."

Shego grinned as she motioned towards a door at the far end of the garage with a neon light that said 'EXIT.' Kim walked ahead and Shego moved to stride beside her.

"There are two sides to Vegas, princess, which you may not have figured out last time you were here," explained. Shego. "Well, three sides if you count the criminal part, but we're not talking about that."

"Okay..." Kim hesitantly acknowledged.

"There's the tourist side, which is all the Strip and the in-your-face advertising and super bright neon lights. And then there's the non-tourist side, which is just as bright, but much less showy."

"And this is the non-touristy side?" asked Kim.

"This is a garage," said Shego. "But yes. I got invited to this club, oh... about three years ago by Bruton Smith."

Kim stared blankly.

"Bruton Smith," Shego repeated. "The Speedway guy."

"Gas stations?" asked Kim.

"Speedway MOTORSPORTS," clarified Shego. "The NASCAR racetrack owner."

"Oh." Kim looked no more understanding than she had a moment ago.

"Well, it doesn't matter," said Shego, waving her hand dismissively. "The point is, there is an exclusive side to Vegas, where some of the best clubs and dining can be had."

"And this is the basement of such a club?" Kim ventured.

"Yes," nodded Shego. Then she added, "I'll keep my responses short, for your benefit."

Kim stuck her tongue out at Shego.

"Oh, that's mature," Shego said, rolling her eyes.

"Okay, I can't NOT, ask," said Kim. "_HOW_ do you know these people? How can you even afford this?"

Shego looked at Kim with raised eyebrows. "That's a pretty personal question, there, princess. Are you sure you want to know?"

"No," Kim said quickly and angrily. "Forget it." She walked a little faster.

"No, wait!" said Shego quickly. She picked up her pace. "I was just teasing. I'll tell you."

"Its fine," said Kim. "I don't need to know."

"But you asked—"

"I shouldn't have," said Kim.

Shego hesitated, as if her voice was caught in her throat for several seconds, then finally sighed loudly and angrily and shook her head. "I seriously don't get you." She stepped in front of Kim and led her through the door and up to the street level where they were just off the Strip by a couple of blocks. Even just a few dozen yards away from the main drag, the height of the buildings made the alley seem like it existed in a cave.

Kim said nothing and silently followed as Shego walked them further from the Strip and finally up to a tall glass building that looked nondescript compared to the neon adorned building just a quarter mile away. Kim would have expected to see the logo of a bank or accounting firm on the side, but instead all she found was a sign by the stairs leading up to the main doors that says "Point Cross, West Buliding."

They walked through a lobby where Shego showed a different card at the security desk who then waved her into a bank of elevators surrounded by granite. Shego pressed a button for the sixth floor and the door silently closed. A few seconds later they opened again.

"Woah," Kim said, and any brooding thoughts were banished from her mind.

"Good evening, ladies," said a tall, blonde man in a designer suit and rimless glasses. He had kind, hazel eyes and stood just outside the elevator and motioned for them to step out.

Kim stared as she moved. They were standing in a clothing store, except there were no overly full racks of dresses or faceless mannequins standing about. The whole floor of the building seemed to be dedicated to the store, which was two stories tall, and surrounded by the glass windows looking out over the city. Kim figured there must have been over a hundred dresses on display, all different, and given enough space for someone walk leisurely around them.

"What... is this place?" asked Kim, in awe.

Shego handed over her card to the man who greeted them, who only briefly looked at it and then handed it back. "Dinner tonight?" asked the man to Shego.

"Yes," nodded Shego. "And a party afterwards."

"Of course, Ms. Hedge," nodded the man. "And your guest is?"

"Ms. Possible," said Shego.

The man turned towards Kim. "Ms. Possible, if you'd come with me please, we can get your measurements."

"Measurements?" said Kim, startled. "I'm not—"

"Yeah, you are," said Shego quickly. "Because you're not going to dinner in that."

Kim looked down at the clothes. She didn't think there was much wrong with them. Sure they were a little threadbare at the knees and the sleeves had begun to fray a tad, but she kept them clean as best as a hitchhiker could.

"I'm—" started Kim.

"You can browse the designs at your leisure, but let us get your measurements so we know what we can do in short order," said the man. He held out a well manicured hand toward Kim and motioned with the other towards an area of the store with tall curtains arranged in concentric circles.

"Um, okay," said Kim, as she took the man's hand and was led off.

Shego watched the girl vanish between the folds of hanging cloth and sighed. Things could be going better.

"Do we intend to match?" came a voice from directly behind Shego. She turned to see a woman in a black and silver dress and well styled hair and dark skin. She smiled pleasantly at Shego.

"Yeah, I suppose," said Shego, nodding. "Whatever she picks, just do something for me."

"You don't seem pleased," said the woman, circling Shego slowly. "Is there something I can do?"

"Not really," said Shego. "We're just having a disagreement."

"And you hope dinner will allay your friend's tensions?"

"Something like that," said Shego. "I dunno. I don't have a plan, I'm just taking this as it goes."

"I wish you luck then, Ms. Hedge," said the woman. "Can I show you some accessories?"

Shego shook her had. "Just the dresses tonight, and some shoes."

"As you wish," the woman bowed and headed off in the same direction Kim was led.

*** KP – KP – KP ***

Dinner, as it turned out, was happening three floors above the dress store. At least, Kim _guessed_ it was a store, but she never saw Shego pay for anything and she found it nearly impossible that she could afford anything in that building. Still, they reentered the elevator adorned in green, silver, and black dresses with black heels. The dresses were not the same or even styled in the same way, but the colors matched well.

The restaurant had a similarly tall ceiling with floor-to-ceiling windows that showed the bright lights of the strip in the near distance and then mountains ever further away. Nearly midnight, as it was, it looked beautiful. Like sparkling jewels glimmering under a dark river. Nobody else was looking at the view, Kim noticed. Either they had seen it all before or they were more engrossed in their dinner conversation.

The other people in the restaurant were very nicely dressed, and Kim understood now why they had to change clothes to come up here, though the luxury of all of this grated heavily against Kim's perception of Shego's life. The woman was a trucker! She lived in the cab of her semi-truck. She wore the same casually disposable clothes that Kim did half the time. How could any of this be affordable to her?

The obvious answer was that it wasn't, and something _else_ was going on that Kim couldn't figure out.

"You're still bothered," said Shego softly. She was casually swirling a glass of red wine, which the server had recommended after he took their orders. "Will you let me explain?"

Kim stared at Shego, momentarily paralyzed by her friendly plead. "Yes," she whispered in response.

She set her glass down and folded her fingers before her. "I told you about my brief college life. When I left and started doing trucking, I was incredibly busy in the first year or so. I did a couple long runs, but mostly was pulled to do local jobs in California and along the East coast. Those are the hardest to get used to, because of traffic, twisty roads, and near 24-hour readiness. Given my sleep patterns, I had a much easier time than most newcomers to the job, I could easily jump up and take a quick run at all hours of the night without trouble. It's how I got an early head start."

"By my third year, I was doing a lot of long hauls," said Shego. "And I found I had lots of free time in order to avoid violating department of transportation trucking laws. I hadn't yet found a company willing to blur the lines on my behalf, so I was still suck with the 18 hour days, and 10 hour shifts. So I got back into racing."

Shego smiled warmly at the memory. "I worked it out as best as I could, finding cities to stop at that I could get involved in local motorcross, or autocross, or drag. Lots of fun stuff. I love motorcycles, but I started out racing cars."

"Then, one day, I'm here in Vegas participating in an event at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Turns out, Bruton Smith is there, and he's impressed at my times. He asks me to help him out. Apparently he was trying to buy some land that was owned by Steve Wynn – you know, the casino mogul – but Wynn wasn't budging. So he made him a bet on a race, and if Smith wins, Wynn sells the property to him."

Shego put a hand to her chest. "He needs a nobody, apparently, someone that Wynn won't expect to be a good racer, to drive the car Smith is betting on. He asks me to do it. Obviously, I'm in. I mean, it's another race and even though I had to stay longer in Vegas than I wanted, I could make up the time no problem."

With a flair, Shego motioned around them. "So I did. I won against Wynn's car, Smith gave me a nice gift, and hands me this card with my name on it. He tells me about this place and says that I can come any time I want and it's on him. Apparently he's one of this building's three owners and the card says I'm a 'friend of the family' so to speak."

Shego knitted her fingers again and leaned forward to rest her chin on them with her elbows on the table. "And that's the story. I get to live rich whenever I'm in Vegas."

"Without limits?" asked Kim. "Forever?"

"Well, I assume it's as long as he's an owner of this establishment," said Shego. "But, yeah, within that, he never said there were any limits. Frankly, with a net worth of one and half billion, I doubt that there is any amount of dinner dates I could have that would even show up in his accounting. In fact, I doubt I've used more than the cost of one of the cars as his dealership."

Kim was quiet for several minutes afterwards. She appeared to be turning over Shego's story in her head and it took time. Their meals showed up before she spoke again. "Dinner dates?" she asked. "So this is a date?"

"It's a—w-well, I mean," stammered Shego. She hadn't realized she'd used that word until Kim mentioned it. "Technically anyone I take here is my date. It's just how the invitations work. It's-uh-you know, 'date' in the generic sense."

"So, I'm a generic date," said Kim.

"N-no I didn't mean that," said Shego. "I mean, you're not generic at all. Look at you, you're..." she trailed off.

"I'm what?"

Shego had a feeling of foreboding. She had backed herself right up into a corner and there was no way to escape without saying something she didn't want to or might regret later. She could not believe that she had let this happen and prayed for a rescue.

"Shego," said Kim, suddenly. Shego's eyes went wide. "How's your wine?"

Shego stared. "Good?"

"Goes well with the fish, I think," said Kim, as she picked up her own glass and took a sip. "At least it does with my salmon. How's your swordfish?"

Shego looked down at her food. Had she taken a bite yet? Her mind was frozen. "I'd... say... so."

"Good," smiled Kim. She looked down and took another bite of her meal. She seemed inordinately pleased with herself for some reason as she ate and Shego continued to stare for a minute longer.

"It's going to get cold," said Kim, pointing discretely at Shego's place.

Shego shook herself awake again and picked up her fork to eat. They continued through dinner, talking lightly about the décor, the history of the Strip, and some more about the food, but never returned to the sentence Shego failed to finish.

As they were finishing their dessert, Shego was finally starting to relax again.

"What else is in this building?" asked Kim.

"A few offices," said Shego. "So it doesn't draw too much attention, a conference center on the first floor and basement, some luxury apartments, and a lounge on the roof."

"Ooh, a rooftop lounge," said Kim. "Are we allowed up there?"

"Sure," said Shego. "It's nice, pretty quiet, though half of the year it's too hot to be outside."

"Seems like a nice night tonight, though," said Kim.

Shego nodded.

"Let's check it out," said Kim, as she stood. She headed back towards the elevators without pausing.

Shego lurched up and grabbed her purse to follow, looking considerably less graceful than she would have hoped. By the time she caught up with Kim she was already in the elevator. Kim had on an impish grin as she poked the button for the top floor and they slowly ascended.

"How much have you drank tonight?" Shego asked idly.

"Hmmm," mused Kim, putting her finger to her lip. "Not much. I learned my lesson the other day. Why?"

"No reason," Shego said simply, but Kim continued to grin at her. Shego tried to ignore it. Somehow the little pixie had become suddenly playful and she wasn't sure whether to be pleased or afraid. She was currently in the 'afraid' area.

With a soft tone the elevator doors opened onto the rooftop lounge. It really was a simple affair, with a decorative pool and a series of waterfalls than ran straight off the edge of the roof. The pool was lit a deep green and the flow of water appeared to originate from under the bar where a simple, black and white angular theme presented a dizzying array of liquors behind a well dressed bartender. There were not too many people up here, no more than a dozen or two, which did indeed make it rather quiet.

Kim smiled and wandered slowly though the lounge, taking in the sights. There were a few tables with chairs around them but mostly there were long, rectangular couches around glass tables flanking the stream leading from the pool off the edge of the roof. A glass, half-height wall surrounded the edge, keeping people from accidentally falling over.

"This is nice," said Kim as they walked. She moved over to the corner of the roof and leaned on the wall, looking out over the city. She could see below a small retaining pool for the waterfall, which drained back into the building.

"It's peaceful," said Shego. "Normally a little too quiet for me."

"Normally?" asked Kim.

Shego shrugged and leaned on the railing beside Kim. They both stared out over the city.

"Thank you," said Kim softly.

"Hm?"

Kim continued to stare off into the distance. "I don't know how much longer I could have gone ignoring what I was feeling," she said. "It's been over a year, now. A year of one mission. One purpose at the expense of everything else."

"Trying to get back to the world you remember," said Shego.

Kim nodded, and looked down at the city below. "I don't know if it's real anymore or not. I try to be confident, and proud, and... determined. But how long can anyone keep that up? I've made no progress. There's been no sign that I'll ever get back."

She sighed. "But most of all, I've been alone for so long that I almost forgot what it was like to stay with someone."

Shego turned to look at Kim, searching the redhead's face for what she about to say next.

"I didn't want to admit I was lonely," said Kim. "Because it might destroy the resolve I had left. But I was. And it was hard to go on."

"But," Kim said, looking up, "I met you."

Shego bit her lip as she listened. She could feel her heart pounding in her chest.

"And you've been incredible to me," said Kim. "I have no idea why you would take pity on a stranger like me, but you did and I'm... so grateful."

"It's not pity," said Shego quickly. She didn't want – she couldn't let her get the wrong idea.

Kim reached out and took Shego's hand. "I know," she said. "And I'm sorry for thinking it was. It was only because I didn't want to admit to myself what I really needed."

"What you needed?" said Shego, almost as a whisper.

"Yes," said Kim. "And here you are, before I even realized you were there."

"Yeah?" said Shego, a smile threatening to show.

"A friend," said Kim, warmly.

Shego's smile died an early death. "A friend," she repeated, trying to keep her voice sound even.

"The best I could have asked for here," said Kim. She leaned in and gave Shego a hug.

Shego was still as she mechanically held Kim in her arms. "Right," she said slowly. "Friends."

*** End Six

* * *

A/N: Yeah, I'm a jerk to these two. It's my nature. I can't help it.

Next up is the penultimate chapter in this story where we finally reach Los Angeles, truths are revealed, and seemingly contradictory questions are raised! Will it be a happy end, or a melancholy one? I bet you can't tell from here, can you? If not, my job is done.

Chapter 7 goes up this Friday night! Chapter 8, the epilogue, will go up the following Monday. There'll be no author's notes after Chapter 7, so I'll see you all again after the denouement!

Thanks for reading!


	7. But When the Ship Started Sinking

The Hitchhiker

Based on characters and situations from **Disney's Kim Possible**.

Written by Adam Leigh.

* * *

_Day 372_

_I don't know what I'm doing anymore. I'm not stupid; I knew what was going on tonight. Shego is ... interested in me. I don't know what to think about that. I'm not sure what to say. I'm not gay. She has been incredibly tolerant of my situation and has treated me like a close friend right from the start even though she knew – at least, I thought she knew – that I couldn't possibly repay her._

_But knowing now that she was into me, does that change everything? Was it all just to get into my pants? Or was she really being friendly with me because she wanted a friend as well?_

_I'm so confused._

_I know what I have done has not defused the situation, I know that she is probably now more frustrated than ever. But how can I possibly respond to her? It's not my fault she's attracted to someone who's straight!_

_No, that's not the whole story. It's not just that she's attracted to me. Is that I really like her. I mean, I wasn't playing a game last night. I think she's been great and the best company that I've had since ending up here. I like her in a ... platonic sense. She's fun to hang around. I like hanging around with her. I like that she makes me happy. She's fun, beautiful, and smart. But she's also SHEGO. Even if I were interested in her – and I'm not – how can I get past the fact that I know in an alternate reality she was my worst enemy?_

_Tomorrow I'm gong to wake up and we're probably going to be on the doorstep of Los Angeles. What happens then?_

*** KP – KP – KP ***

Kim didn't sleep much that night. She tried to, laying out on the bed in the back of Shego's cab while the latter drove, but as each hour ticked away, she found herself more and more consumed by her thoughts.

Shego said nothing throughout this time, driving in silence either not knowing or not caring that Kim was awake. It was the most awkward six hours that Kim had spent in the rig.

Eventually, as the early morning sunlight became late morning, Kim got up and moved back over to the passenger seat. She had changed last night back into her normal clothes, the fancy dress now occupying a bag in the back by the bed, sitting next to an identical bag containing Shego's dress.

"'morning," said Shego without fanfare.

"Good morning," replied Kim. She stared out the windshield at the slowly moving traffic around them. She shook her head. "I guess this is Los Angeles."

"During morning rush hour," nodded Shego. She sighed. "I should have gotten started earlier, then we'd already be closer to downtown. This will probably take another hour or two."

"Fun," said Kim. She smiled. She wasn't sure why she was smiling, other than she wanted to continue the appearance of being delighted at having a fiend, instead of dreading the moment when everything came crashing down.

"So, where should I be taking you?" asked Shego.

"Anywhere is fine, I eventually have to get to Caltech though."

Shego looked at Kim. "Caltech is in Pasadena."

"Pasadena?" asked Kim.

"Yeah, it's, well, it's a suburb, really. I suppose its part of the greater Los Angeles area, but it's not within the city." Shego shrugged. "Well, obviously, since it has it's own name."

"Oh," said Kim. "Well, I can probably get a lift over there. Maybe a bus or something."

Shego nodded and was quiet. Kim settled in her seat and continued the silence.

"Ah, what the hell, I'll take you there," said Shego. She rubbed her eyes so hard Kim was concerned she would pop them out. "Let me start my delivery of my cargo and then we can jump on the bike and head over to Caltech."

"You don't have to do that," said Kim, holding up a hand.

"Yeah, I know it, Princess," Shego said. "But I want to help you, so I'm going to."

"I don't want to be a burden," Kim added.

Shego gave her a look that looked like a mixture of anger and incredulity mixed in one. "Look, you're going to end up walking if I don't help you, and I don't particularly relish the idea of you walking alone down the Arroyo Seco Parkway."

Kim nodded, not sure how far to push this, and eventually relented, "All right. Thank you."

Shego nodded absently. "So who are you going to see at Caltech?"

"Someone I remember from my world," said Kim. "Hopefully he's an engineer that can help me figure out whats going on."

"Hopefully?"

"None of the other people I remembered from my old life were much help, I'm not going to get my hopes too far up just because he's..."

Shego waited, but Kim had stopped talking.

"He's what?" asked Shego. "He's at one of the leading technical institutes instead of in imagination land, Colorado?"

"No," Kim said curtly.

"Well, what is it?"

"He's..." Kim seemed to be struggling.

"Princess," warned Shego.

"He's my father."

Shego turned and looked at Kim. "Your father?"

"From my world, yes, he's my father," said Kim. She shifted uneasily in her seat. "He's a genius roboticist specializing in macro-applications to nanomachinery."

"A macWhat?" said Shego.

"He uses tiny machines to build big things," said Kim.

"Oh," nodded Shego. "So what makes you think he can help you? Does he have a minor in quantum physics or something?"

"I don't know if he can help," said Kim. "I just... he's my father. And I found him by chance in a university directory. He's such a brilliant scientist where I'm from. I just hope he's got the answers I'm looking for here."

Shego seemed to chew on that for a minute. "Do you think he'll recognize you?" she asked.

"I don't know," said Kim. "There have been plenty of overlaps in families. I met Wade and his mother, who are relatively the same except living in Philadelphia and he's a gamer introvert instead of a brilliant computer hacker."

"Hrm," said Shego.

"And I also found Bonnie – who was just as acerbic as ever - and _her_ family – who were actually much tamer than I remember. They were living in Hartford."

"So the people are the same, but their situations are different?" asked Shego. "Is that possible?"

"Apparently," said Kim. "But I've always used it as a sign that I'm not totally crazy. The other versions of people must exist, because how else could I have met them all?"

"Well, if you traveled as much as I do," started Shego.

"I suppose it's still a possibility," admitted Kim. "If I was an army brat, or something. Which is part of why I have to go see my dad. I have to know if I exist in this world, if he recognizes me, or ... something else. In the least, I'm hoping he can help me find a way to get back to where I belong."

"Where you belong?" asked Shego, quietly.

"Yeah, the world I come from," said Kim, continuing without hesitating. "He might know someone who can help."

Shego nodded slowly.

"Or... something," added Kim. She stared out the window quietly.

*** KP – KP – KP ***

Shego jumped down from her truck after backing it up to the warehouse it was being unloaded into. She pulled her clipboard from the door pocket and started heading towards the back. People were already climbing into the trailer and scanning the boxes to determine where to stack them.

Kim came around the front of the truck and then fell in step behind Shego, who was flipping through her bill of materials for the summary page.

"How long does it take to unload one of these things?" asked Kim.

"A few hours, and then a few more hours to load up again if I'm doing a return run," said Shego. She flipped another page on her clipboard. "I'm not sure yet if that's what's going on. I'll have to call in before we go anywhere."

Kim shrugged. "Take your time, I'm not in a terrible rush."

The two girls reached the loading area and a young blonde man in a flannel shirt came to edge of the platform and reached out a hand to help the ladies climb up. Shego took it quickly and Kim stared with an open mouth.

"Sharon!" said the blond boy. "Back this way so soon? You just can't keep away from the hotness here." He flexed his nearly non-existent muscle.

"In your dreams, Ron," said Shego with a smile.

"Ron?" said Kim, finally finding her voice.

The boy looked down at Kim, with a surprised look.

"You know each other?" asked Shego.

Ron shook his head slowly but with a smile. "'Fraid not, but I'd sure like to." He dropped one knee down and reached out towards Kim. "Can I give you a hand, beautiful?"

"Oh, lay off it," said Shego.

Kim took the hand and was surprised when Ron lifted her up onto the platform with ease. He didn't look like it, but he must have been in better shape than the Ron that she knew.

"Ron Stoppable?" asked Kim, hesitantly.

"That's right, gorgeous," said Ron. He looked to Shego. "You been talking about me, Green?"

"Hell no," said Shego with what looked like a full body shiver. "I have not forgotten the time you spilled black ink all over the inside of my truck. I try to forget you."

"It was not my fault that shipping crate was faulty! It would have burst if anyone tried moving it out of there!"

Kim swallowed. "Sorry, I'm Kim Possible. We haven't met before, it was just a lucky guess."

Ron and Shego stared at her. "You guessed at my last name?" asked Ron.

Shego narrowed her eyes and looked between Ron and Kim. "It's a thing she does," she suddenly blurted. Ron and Kim looked to her in surprise. "Like The Amazing Kreskin? I don't know she manages, but she can guess people's names."

"Some sort of cold reading then?" asked Ron with a raised eyebrow. "I bet you can't guess my pet parakeet's name, then."

Kim looked at him. "Rufus?" she ventured.

Ron's jaw dropped. "Oh my god," he said. He looked to Shego. "She's the real deal!"

"Oh good lord," Shego said, putting a hand to her forehead. She then took her clipboard and smacked it against Ron's chest, hard. "Just do your inventory and stay away from her."

Ron absently took the clipboard and then wandered over towards where his men were unloading the truck. He kept his eyes on Kim as long as he could before colliding with the corner of the truck and toppling over the edge of the loading dock.

"What a buffoon," said Shego, shaking her head. "I should call him that. Buffoon-boy or something."

"Wouldn't be the first time," said Kim, absently.

"What?" asked Shego. "Okay, what was that about? You know him?"

"Same way I know my father or Wade or Bonnie," said Kim.

"He's someone whose butt you saved while being a hero in your dream world?" asked Shego. "Not surprising."

"No," said Kim. "No, he was my friend... he, he was my boyfriend."

It was Shego's turn to stare slackjawed. "You ... you were dating buffoon-boy?"

"Yeah," said Kim. "He is nice– he _was_ a – er, he is a ... um."

"No, no, you know what? I don't need to hear this." Shego threw her hands in the air. "He doesn't know you here, so it's not relevant anymore. Let's just get my stuff in order so that we can go find your daddy." She turned and headed into the warehouse, leaving Kim behind.

*** KP – KP – KP ***

Kim poked at an information kiosk in the student union at Caltech. Shego hovered, her arms crossed, just over Kim's shoulder and trying not to appear interested but keeping a rapt eye on the redhead's progress.

"Paulo, Phoebe, Pinkerton," Kim recited as she scanned down a list of names in the faculty directory.

"Is your mother here too?" asked Shego, idly.

Kim shook her head. "I haven't found any sign of her yet," she said. "She's not here at Caltech, or any of the LA universities with directories on their websites. The local hospitals don't necessarily list their entire staff on their websites, but I haven't found anything there either."

"Maybe they're not together?" posited Shego.

"Would explain why I don't seem to exist," said Kim. "Ah, here we are, Possible. Timothy James."

Shego looked over Kim's shoulder.

"Baxter Building , Floor 3," said Kim. She turned to face Shego. "Let's go!"

Shego nodded but her eyes lingered on the screen for several moments longer before following. She frowned.

The two crossed the campus towards the Baxter building, a long, stone building with tall narrow windows on it across from an equally long and tall building on the Beckman Mall. After taking an elevator up to the third floor the two began searching for the office number that was listed in the directory. Kim was eagerly looking at each door for its number then moving methodically in the direction to the left. Shego seemed to be only casually checking the door numbers and was much more interested in the papers hanging on the walls and the things inside the office windows they passed.

"Hey, Princess," said Shego as she stared inside an office filled with books and models of heads. "What did you say your father was an expert at?"

"He's a rocket scientist primarily, but also a specialist in nanotechnology," Kim called over her shoulder. "Hey! Keep up!"

Shego nodded and walked on, but didn't increase her speed at all.

"You described it differently before," said Shego. "Something about small things making big things."

"Macro-applications of micro-robotics?" said Kim.

Shego slowed and stopped to read a whitepaper tacked on the door of one of the faculty offices. It had an MRI on it and was titled 'Small Reactions Cause Big Changes in Brain–" the rest was covered by another paper hanging over it. Shego stuck out her finger to push the other paper away.

"Found it!" Kim yelled from down the hall.

Shego stared at the paper in front of her. "Princess!" she called. Then she turned to look at where Kim was. She began running down the hall as she saw her open an office door. "Wait up!" The door closed behind her before Shego could get there. She picked up her speed down the hall. She'd never run so fast in her life.

After what seemed like eternity, she reached the door and yanked it open with all her might. "KIMMIE!" she yelled.

Inside the office she saw Kim, lying in the arms of an older man with slightly graying hair and a corduroy jacket and a syringe in his hand.

"What did you _do_?" screamed Shego. She reached her hand forward like a claw. "Get away from her!"

"Who on Earth are you?" asked the man, his eyes wide. He made no effort to move away from Kim's motionless form.

Shego balled her hands into fists and stalked forward with a scowl on her face. "Step away from her, or I will _KILL YOU!_"

"Please, let me explain," said the man. He held up one hand, the one with the syringe, and slowly laid Kim down on a brown leather chair in the office. Shego noticed the syringe was empty.

"Step. _Away_."

The man stepped slowly back behind the desk while Shego stepped forward and protectively put her hand on Kim. She felt for a pulse on her neck and noticed it was slow but present. "I only sedated her," said the man.

"Start talking," Shego said through barely controlled rage.

"M-my name is Doctor James Possible," said the man. "I'm a professor of psychology and behavioral biology here."

"I saw that in the directory!" shouted Shego. "Tell me what you were doing!"

"That girl there, you called her 'Kimmie', right?" said Dr. Possible. Shego nodded. "Her name is Angela Luxberg. She was a patient at the university hospital two years ago who underwent – voluntarily – some experimental treatment of her early onset Alzheimer's disease."

Shego blinked. "Bullshit."

"It looked like it worked at first," continued the professor. "But there were anomalies about six months into her treatment. Memories stopped being rebuilt and were... reorganizing. She was rewriting her life through her memories."

"Shut up," said Shego.

"Then, suddenly, about a year or so ago, she just broke, forgot everything about her real life, and vanished," said Possible. "We couldn't find her anywhere, she ran out of a hospital room at Philly General and we ... lost track of her."

"Shut the hell up you god damn liar!"

"I thought she might try to track one of us down," said Dr. Possible. "There is _some_ foundation to her memories, even if they aren't real. Sooner or later she would go looking for the ones that played a big role in her _now_ earliest memories."

Shego kicked the desk and caused it slide into the professor, pinning his hips against the wall. He squawked loudly in alarm. "Why are you still talking?" pleaded Shego.

"I know – ack – I know it seems far fetched but it's real," said Dr. Possible. "In a way, I'm happy she was able to make friends, even in her debilitated state."

Shego launched herself forward and grabbed Dr. Possible's shirt and slammed him against the wall. "Don't you _dare_ say she's debilitated again! She's a perfectly healthy girl!"

"So you believe what she told you?" asked Dr. Possible. "Even though it probably didn't make sense to you?"

Shego's eye twitched.

"She doesn't KNOW she lying," said Dr. Possible. "She thinks it's all real. That's the state of her condition. She couldn't help it. But she needs to be contained and studied to see if we can recover her old life."

"Screw you and your experiment," spat Shego. "Don't you think you've dicked with her enough?" She pushed against Dr. Possible chest, squeezing him against the wall. In her mind, Shego could see herself pushing him straight through into the adjacent office and it excited her. Maybe he might survive, maybe not.

"Aaaggg," he garbled "S-She _has a family!"_

Shego froze. The rage began to dribble out of her. "What?"

"Ow," moaned Dr. Possible. "She has a family. Parents. Grandparents. They lost their daughter that day, they've been looking for her ever since."

Shego stared at the professor, trying to read into his statement. Turning it over in her head for mores signs of deception.

With a growl, she released the professor and kicked away the desk, allowing him to fall to the ground. She turned and went back to kneel beside Kim, putting a hand to the girl's cheek.

"She doesn't remember them," said Shego softly.

"Of course not," said the professor, fixing his collar as he painfully stood. "They're part of her life before the treatment." He coughed loudly. "But we might be able to recover them."

"How likely is 'might'?" asked Shego.

"I don't know, I haven't had the ability to do the research yet because our _subject_ was missing."

Shego snapped her head around and glared at him. "She is a person, not a _subject_. Kimmie, or Angela, or whatever the hell she wants to call herself."

"This _person_ you know," said the professor. "Is the artifact of a delusion, a cognitive break with reality. Under normal circumstances she would be committed. Or dead, as the Alzheimer's would have progressed so far as to affect her autonomic systems. But here she is, _healthy_ as you said. The plaque buildup was stopped, or bypassed, or something I don't know because I haven't been able to look inside her head."

He stepped around to the side of the two girls. "She represents a breakthrough," he said. "The key to unlocking the potential of the human brain, or at least helping the millions of Alzheimer's patients around the world if we can refine it."

Shego looked back at Kim, and at her quiet, sleeping face.

"She might just be an artifact to you," said Shego slowly. "But she's not to me. And if there is one thing I've learned from her in the mere days we've been together, is that we ARE our memories." She reached down and carefully picked Kim up in her arms. "You destroyed Angela's life, denied her the little time she had left with her family before her disease claimed her, for the sake of your 'breakthrough.'" She shook her head. "You won't destroy Kim."

Shego began to leave the office, but Dr. Possible stepped in front of her. "You can't do this! This is kidnapping! She isn't this 'Kim' girl, she's Angela Luxberg and every legal system in the world backs me up!"

"You don't think of her as Angela Luxberg any more than I do," said Shego. "But fine, I'm kidnapping her. So be it. Anything to keep her away from you." She kneed the doctor in the gut and ran away.

*** KP – KP – KP ***

Shego didn't notice any police following her as she made her way back to the warehouse where her rig was parked, but she didn't want to take any chances. After gently resting Kim on the bed in her cab, she put a fire under Ron to speed up the unloading and loading process to get them on the road as fast as possible. He had a long string of expletives for Shego's hurrying, but she ignored it and was on the road again a couple of hours later.

She looked at her delivery map which would send her to twelve different points across the country to deliver goods. A two month task at least. That would keep her moving for a quite a while, even if the police start looking for her.

She glanced back at Kim's sleeping form. She wasn't sure what she was going to tell the Princess. In a way, she felt guilty for taking the girl's life into her own hands in much the same manner those lousy scientists did. But she had to be right, there was no way that Kim would want to be a guinea pig for those bastards. Right?

Shego didn't get very far before hitting into traffic again. They had run smack into afternoon rush hour because of Shego's hurrying. It could easily be a couple of hours before she made it north of LA and on her way to the first stop on her list: Portland, Oregon.

Her eyes drifted back to Kim every now and then, and she hoped the girl wasn't too affected by the sedative. She wondered how long she would be out.

Shego's eyes caught a glimpse of Kim's bag, lying beside the bed where Shego had left it this afternoon. She reached back during a stop in the traffic and grabbed it. Inside there were a variety of mundane things, a change of clothes, a toothbrush, a hair brush, and a stack diaries. Shego pulled them out and looked at them. They were numbered and dated with start and end times.

Shego sighed as she looked at the stopped traffic in front of her. She bit her lip anxiously.

Then she opened the first diary and began to read.

*** End Seven


	8. The Band Just Played On

**8. The Band Just Played On**

_Day 374_

_I had a dream last night._

_In it, I was floating in this massive space, in orbit of a giant glowing ball of light with smaller motes of light circling it as well. It looked like a massive atom, as big as a planet. I was just marveling at the sight when all of a sudden I found myself standing on a road made of bright blue-white light. The road extended all the way to the nucleus of the atom and the orbiting lights seemed to just miss hitting the road each time._

_I was standing there, staring, when a young girl came up to me. She was short, with long brown hair tied in a pony-tail and wearing a uniform colored in black and gray with a green trim. She looked familiar, although I can't say why. She introduced herself to me as 'Fayt.'_

"_Kim," she said to me. "The worlds are collapsing back into themselves once more. Thanks to other versions of you and Shego the damage done by Athena is being repaired and people who have been lost in the infinite worlds are being fed back into the Possibility Engine once more."_

_I told her I had no idea what she was talking about and she said it didn't matter._

"_I'm here to offer you a choice," she said. "You fell out of your home world and landed in a new one where you created new connections and established a new paradigm. I can take you back to your home world, or I can leave you to your new one. But I warn you, once you make your choice the walls between worlds will rise once more and truths will rework themselves to match."_

_I asked her what she meant by Truths changing._

"_There is no such thing as real truth, Kim, only perception. The universe is guided by Possibilities, endlessly reworked into new scenarios and lived out by those who see them as reality. Once you give yourself over to a Possibility, it can be hard to break loose again. It is both daunting and inspiring because nothing is forbidden if we can think it, but nothing can be stopped if it can be dreamed."_

_The girl gently touched my forehead and it felt warm. "This was only one event in the endlessly changing void. Some day there will be another. On that day, I or someone else may come back here to offer you the choice again." _

_She closed her eyes and whispered something I couldn't hear. Then, when her eyes opened again, they were glowing green. She said, "So, Kim, on this day, what is your choice? Return to your old world, or continue in this new one with Shego?"_

_And I said-_

*** KP – KP – KP ***

Kim paused in her writing and looked up. Shego was driving, it was early morning, and they were on a road that looked over a cliff leading to the open sea.

"Where are we?" asked Kim.

"US 1," said Shego. "It's a state highway that heads up the coastline. It's not quite the quickest way to Oregon, but, it's... well..."

"Beautiful," said Kim looking out at waves, reflecting the reddish sunrise coming up over the ridge on the other side of the road.

"Yeah," said Shego, looking back at Kim with a half smile. Her eyes seemed red around the edges, for some reason. "Exactly."

Kim dropped her diary absently onto the bed and moved to sit in the passenger seat. "There are barely any cars," she noted.

"We're far enough away from the major cities that we're less affected by traffic," said Shego. "It'll probably get worse soon as the day drags on."

Kim looked out on the highway and it seemed like they were the only vehicle on it, driving alone, along the sea, beside the sunrise.

"Do you like me?" asked Shego.

Kim blinked at the sudden question. "What do you mean?"

"I... I mean, I get it that you're not into girls," said Shego awkwardly. She almost seemed to be blushing, but that would have been so out of character Kim assumed it must have been something else. "Which is... you know, disappointing. But, I mean, as a person – as a close friend, I mean... do you really like me? I mean, would you choose this life, if you had a choice?"

Kim thought about that. "What do you mean by 'this life'?"

"Well, you had a family once," said Shego. "And friends and a whole 'best enemies' dynamic that I don't quite get. But you had something there, something you remember. And now you're, well, you're just roaming the country - with me at the moment - and looking for something you're not sure exists. It's not much of a choice."

Kim considered the question and slowly a smile grew over her face. It was a warm smile. Content. "I'll tell you something that my Nana once said to me," said Kim. "'Life is what happens while you're waiting for a better option.'" She looked past Shego at the ocean stretching towards the horizon. "You have to have a goal, I think, because otherwise you sit still and nothing happens to you. But it's a bad idea to think your current goal is the point of your life, because that goal is just a direction and your life is about living the journey."

Kim settled her hands on her lap and looked at them. "I don't know if my goal is real anymore, but it's really not that important. And given the opportunity, between heading in that direction with you or going back to a world that doesn't really _need _me anymore... well, I think I'd stay with you."

Shego started blinking frequently and found it hard to swallow. She sniffled once and then, with a burst of contained air, she said, "Thanks." She then smiled, weakly, as her eyes watered.

"Was that what you wanted to hear?" asked Kim with her glowing smile.

"Yeah, it was," said Shego. She rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand and focused on the road ahead of her. "Gah! Stupid ... uh, allergies."

"Right," said Kim. "I get them sometimes too."

"Always at the worst times," said Shego, through a sniffle.

Kim looked towards the sunrise. "And the best ones."

*** End.

**Kim and Shego will return in: ****The Hitchhiker 2: Born To Run!**

*** KP – KP – KP ***

A/N: I have left things here with no answer to the question. Kim is either insane or she's from another dimension and I have left evidence of both claims as well as flaws in both stories. The real question I was asking here was about personality and integrity. Is Shego still SHEGO even if she's not a criminal and doesn't have her plasma powers? Is Kim still KIM if she only remembers her heroics and the rest of the world doesn't? In Chapter 7, Shego says to Dr. Possible that memories are who we are, and I believe that. We can't ever trust what we recall, as we know from Decartes, but who we are, our behaviors, are inextricably linked to our memories.

So it doesn't matter, in my mind, if Kim is crazy or from another reality. She's still Kim Possible, and that's the answer Shego comes to as well, which is why she goes out of her way to rescue the girl she's come to like, despite being rejected by said girl.

This has been yet another exploration of the dynamic between Kim and Shego, the hero and the villain that don't quite hate each other as they should and, under other circumstances, might be friends. I have drawn inspiration from many sources in the creation of this tale, most notably the abbreviated writing style of _Sobriety_ (and _King in Yellow_) as well as heavy initial characterization from Walking the Line, by _StarvingLunatic_. During the editing process, this story has evolved in a direction that I liked and which stepped away a bit from what I borrowed from those writers.

Shego, in this story, is a wounded soul, from events that have not yet been described in full and won't be until Hitchhiker 3: The Longest Journey; which I'm currently developing alongside Hitchhiker 2. We don't always get the full story behind the people we know, even our loved ones, until long after we have come to know them. I hope you will not mind the slow path towards unpeeling the onion that is Shego and Kim in this story.

Will Kim and Shego get together? I don't want to say anything at this time. It's not a simple matter, and it will not be benefited by me exposing my biases. Love is a strange thing, and I hate that people associate it with sex when those are separate concepts. You can have sex with someone you don't love, and you can love someone you don't want to have sex with. Whether those things apply here will be revealed in time.

Fayt, and references to Athena are from the unwritten conclusion to Possibility Engine, one of my larger tales. I know what happens in the end of PE, just as I know what happens in the end of Apocolocyntosis, but it takes me a hell of a time to get there. I'm just too picky. I've thrown out probably a quarter million words of text by now that I just one day decided I was unhappy with.

Thanks for coming with me on this journey. I appreciate all of your feedback and kind words.

**Preview for Hitchhiker 2:**

_I asked her again, I think about three weeks ago, about her feelings towards me and she again did not respond. I don't know why she wouldn't simply say 'No' and get it over with. I've read her diaries once and I know she's said many times she's straight, but I thought, well, given everything that's happened, just to be sure, I would ask her._

_That was months ago now. She refuses to answer me. It's the most aggravating thing in the world! I try not to think about it on most days, but sometimes, her hair catches the sun just right and makes a bloom that catches my breath. She's gorgeous. I'm obsessed with her. I have no idea how I became so pathetic._

*** KP – KP – KP ***

Kim shook her head. "It's not right," she said firmly. "I need to find a way to contribute or I'll never feel comfortable with this."

Shego pulled the rig into a trucker friendly gas station and put on the brake. "Well, you're not going to make any money through racing if you can't do it full time." She pulled out her folio of receipts and climbed out of the cab. Kim followed suit to continue the conversation. "Given where we go, I only see three possibilities for a career for you. One: creating some craft to sell when we hit cities."

"Blah," said Kim. "I'm not that good with my hands."

"Two: become a part time stripper."

"Right," said Kim. "I'd be you'd love that. Also, see above."

"Mmmm," Shego savored that thought for a moment. "And three: something on the internet."

"The internet?" said Kim.

"I assume you'll let me buy you a laptop, but you could look for a writing job or something to do with a website," said Shego as she opened the cap on her gas tank. "Something you could do from anywhere and while we're driving." She pulled out one of the nozzles and began filling the tank with diesel.

"What could I write about?" asked Kim, she was clearly intrigued but still confused. "I'm not really an expert on anything."

"Well, maybe you could make a blog or something," said Shego. "If you're entertaining enough you could make money off it. You certainly spend enough of your time writing in your diaries."

"Who would want to read my aimless thoughts every day?" asked Kim, with a raised eyebrow.

"You'd be surprised," said Shego. "The internet is a strange place."

*** KP – KP – KP ***

Kim Possible, Shego, Wade, Bonnie, Drakken, Ron Stoppable, Dr. Possible, and the town of Middleton are all from Disney's Kim Possible. Lawrence Fletcher is from Disney's Phineas and Ferb. All characters and situations are presented in a modified format inspired by their original published appearances.

All locations mentioned by name, except Middleton and the Point Cross building, are real but descriptions may be inaccurate. Additional information was obtained from Wikipedia, the Las Vegas Speedway website, the AMA Pro Racing website, and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration website.

I know almost nothing about long or short haul trucking, and made almost everything up. Forgive me. :)

While Adenosine is the chemical in the human brain that triggers tiredness, Adenosine Immunity is not a real condition. The symptoms Shego describes are fictional and should not be considered a medical diagnosis.

If you enjoyed this story please check out my other Kim Possible works at Fanfiction dot net under the username TempestDash. My opinions about television, movies, video games, and life in general are also available on my blog at rogue-penguin dot com.


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